President Donald Trump’s Thursday night town hall on Fox News offered him a chance to speak to supporters about the possibility of a second term and the accomplishments that he has made in his first term as leader of the free world.
But, asked about his biggest accomplishments, Trump appeared to tout an Obama bill to reform the VA.
Trump began by saying “I think, before I finish this term, we’ll have close to 300 judges — federal judges,” he also noted that he put two justices on the Supreme Court, as the town hall transcript reads. He also touted his creation of the Space Force.
But, moments later, he seemed to boast a 2014 Obama bill, saying, “And we got Veterans Choice approved and Veterans Accountability. That’s where you can fire people that do a bad job. You couldn’t do it before. Very hard to get, they tried to get it for 50 years. Because of civil service unions, et cetera, you couldn’t, you know, get it. I got it.”
Trump continued:
“And the other thing is Veterans Choice, where if they can’t see a doctor — we have great doctors at the VA. But if you can’t see a doctor, you go out, and you get a private doctor. We pay the bill. … You have no idea how great it’s been. And it’s actually, you save money, believe it or not. But you have no idea. We save lives, a tremendous number of lives. And I would say that’s an achievement.”
Asked what his biggest accomplishments have been, Trump cites legislation that was signed into law by President Obama in 2014 pic.twitter.com/z4fxKm411A
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 26, 2020
But the choice program, which allows vets to see doctors outside the VA system, was passed in 2014 by President Barack Obama and when Trump boasted his bill in 2019, The Associated Press slammed him in a fact-check for “claiming full credit for health care improvements that were underway before they took office.”
In 2018, Trump did sign a VA bill that was aimed at cutting down on wait times that vets might experience in the VA and making it easier for them to go outside the system. However, there was serious concern as to how the administration would pay for the bill that Trump signed into law.