Morale in the VA was pretty bad over the way their bosses reacted to the death of VA nurse Alex Pretti. The response of Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins was singled out by employees.
According to what employees told The Prospect, Collins did not even bother to send out an email acknowledging the shock and horror of the more than 400,000 employees who serve under him. “There was nothing in my in-box about this on Monday morning,” one VA employee said. Collins’s only response to Pretti’s death was on social media, and it was, the employee said, not helpful.
All Collins said was: “We can confirm Alex Pretti was a nurse at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center. As President Trump has said, nobody wants to see chaos and death in American cities, and we send our condolences to the Pretti family. Such tragedies are unfortunately happening in Minnesota because of state and local officials’ refusal to cooperate with the federal government to enforce the law and deport dangerous illegal criminals.” (Can you tell he’s a MAGAt?)
Sen. Elissa Slotkin went after Collins’ scalp for exactly that kind of callous indifference, and it was gratifying to watch. “Was this man, in your estimation, a domestic terrorist, or an assassin?”
He denied making any personal characterization.
