--- title: Chief of Staff: Obama "Madder Than Hell" About VA Hospital Scandal description: The president is urging Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki to fix problems in a hospital system following reports of deadly wait times canonical: https://time.com/104075/obama-va-scandal/ author: Nolan Feeney article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-05-18T18:40:52.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T07:54:33.617Z article:section: Politics og:title: Chief of Staff: Obama "Madder Than Hell" About VA Hospital Scandal og:description: The president is urging Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki to fix problems in a hospital system following reports of deadly wait times og:url: https://time.com/104075/obama-va-scandal/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Chief of Staff: Obama "Madder Than Hell" About VA Hospital Scandal twitter:description: The president is urging Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki to fix problems in a hospital system following reports of deadly wait times twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Adviser: Obama 'Madder Than Hell' About VA Scandal > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=c6ea22e8-1a40-438d-9c6f-dee1d9854022&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1)  by [Nolan Feeney](https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney May 18, 2014 6:40 PM UTC  by [Nolan Feeney](https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney May 18, 2014 6:40 PM UTC President Barack Obama is [“madder than hell”](http://www.cbsnews.com/news/face-the-nation-transcripts-may-18-2014-mcdonough-dellinger-bloomberg-geithner/) about reports of long wait times that led to preventable deaths at veterans’ hospitals, according to a top adviser. White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough said on Sunday on CBS’s _Face the Nation_ that Obama is urging Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki to “continue to fix these things until they’re functioning the way that our veterans believe they should.” Shinseki himself [used similar language last week](http://time.com/100830/shinseki-va-hearing/) when he testified in front of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee about reports that at least 40 veterans died while waiting for care at a Phoenix VA hospital. “Any allegation about any adverse incident like this makes me mad as hell. I could use stronger language here, Mr. Chairman, but in deference to the committee, I won’t,” Shinseki said on Thursday. Dr. Robert Petzel, the VA’s top health official, [resigned on Friday](http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/16/us-usa-politics-shinseki-idUSBREA4E0JS20140516). House Republicans have also scheduled for Wednesday a vote on legislation that would expand Shinseki’s firing power. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/104075/obama-va-scandal/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/104075/obama-va-scandal/"},"headline":"Adviser: Obama 'Madder Than Hell' About VA Scandal","datePublished":"2014-05-18T18:40:52.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T07:54:33.617Z","description":"President Obama is urging Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki to fix issues in the VA's hospital system after his testimony last week before the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee about reports that at least 40 veterans died while waiting for care at a Phoenix hospital","url":"https://time.com/104075/obama-va-scandal/","keywords":["White House","Veterans","President Obama","Veterans Affairs"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Nolan Feeney","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/104075/obama-va-scandal/","name":"Adviser: Obama 'Madder Than Hell' About VA Scandal"}}]}] ```