WASHINGTON, D.C. — Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump will ensure American veterans have convenient access to top quality health care services, indicated Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT), a former commander at the fabled Navy SEAL Team Six during an interview with Breitbart News Saturday host Matt Boyle on Sirius XM Patriot Radio Channel 125.
Medical centers operated by President Barack Obama’s Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) have come under fire in the last year for keeping long wait lists of veterans in need of essential care. Some veterans died while waiting for care.
Congress’s only Navy SEAL veteran, who spent 23 years of his life defending the United States, recently came out in support of Trump, the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee.
“I strongly endorse Donald Trump because we need a president that will put our veterans in front of the line rather than watch them die while in line,” declared Zinke on Breitbart News Saturday. “There’s a difference and the VA is broke.”
“We need a businessman [like Trump] who’s not going to accept business as usual in Washington,” added the Montana Republican.
The problem with the Veterans Health Administration hospitals is “layers of bureaucracy getting into a system” that treats veterans “as a number” rather than human beings, pointed out Zinke, adding, “Not every veteran clinic is bad.”
In October, Trump unveiled a plan to reform the veterans health care system.
“We’re going to take care of those wounded warriors and we’re going to take care of our vets better than anybody,” proclaimed the Republican candidate when announcing his proposal in Norfolk, VA, home to a sizable military population.
“The plan will ensure our veterans get the care they need, wherever and whenever they need it,” he added.
Early this week, VA Secretary Robert McDonald drew sharp rebukes from Democrats and Republicans alike for downplaying the fatal impact of the wait times at VA medical centers by comparing them to lines at Disney theme parks.
Trump condemned McDonald for making those comments.
“I don’t agree with 100 percent of what Donald Trump says, but I agree…100 percent [that] we need to shake it up,” said Rep. Zinke, who served as deputy and acting commander of U.S. Special Forces in Iraq. “The status quo is not working and I believe that Donald Trump is going to be a phenomenal president.”
Republicans “had 17 candidates [at the beginning of the presidential election] and they were quality candidates,” the congressman added. “Every one of those candidates was capable of assuming the responsibility of being the president and at the end of the day… the candidate who won is the shake-it-up candidate.”
Individual freedoms and the U.S. Constitution are in danger of being trampled, warned Zinke.
“We could lose this country,” he told Breitbart News Saturday.
However, he added that Trump can steer the country in the right direction, noting that the problems facing the U.S. are “fixable.”
“Let me give you some good news, the next president is still going to inherit the strongest military ever assembled in the history of mankind,” Zinke said.
“We’re battered. We’re bruised. We’re not where we should be, but we’re still by far the strongest military. We have more natural resources — coal, oil, wind — across the board not only to be energy independent but to be a leading exporter,” he added. “If you get the government off our back, there’s no economy in the world that can create more jobs in the long-term for everybody.”
The time has come to take back America, declared Zinke.
Breitbart News Saturday airs weekly on SiriusXM Patriot Channel 125, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Eastern Time.