Video News Clips: In Their Own Words

‘That Scares My Employees’: VA Sec Calls Out Reporter Carpet For Publishing ‘Innuendo And Rumor Stories’

[Screenshot/VA Affairs]

Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary Doug Collins confronted Military.com reporter Patricia Kime Tuesday over her alleged “innuendo and rumor stories” about employees in his agency.

The VA secretary ridiculed Kime’s report from February titled, “Elon Musk Aide Is Now Working at VA and Accessing Its Computer System,” which cited unconfirmed rumors that representatives from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are accessing the agency’s computer systems. Collins yanked out the article, read from it and asked her to commit to no longer writing untrue stories that scare and hurt his employees.

“One of the issues that we’re having, and I have it here, I need your help on something,” Collins said. “I need your help because all I seem to be doing lately is fighting back against innuendo and rumor stories. And this is what I seem to be fighting about all the time. In fact, Patricia, part of it is with you, and I just need your help because when you start headlines with ‘There’s a rumor going around’ and that ‘we’ve heard that,’ that hurts my veterans, that scares my veterans. That scares my employees. Will you commit to not doing that in the future? … I have a VA employee who is our DOGE liaison. You knew that, and could ask that question.”

“I did ask that question,” Kime said.

Reporters – Please help our Veterans by NOT spreading unconfirmed rumors, hearsay and innuendo about @DeptVetAffairs. Thank you! pic.twitter.com/rZbMQn5VmY

— VA Secretary Doug Collins (@SecVetAffairs) March 11, 2025

In her report, Kime wrote that “rumors began circulating” about DOGE representatives visiting the agency to “mine data on disability compensation and benefits,” which Collins denied during the interview. VA press secretary Pete Kasperowicz told Kime in February that the agency has one employee from DOGE who focuses on “identifying wasteful contracts, improving VA operations and strengthening management of the department’s IT projects,” and Collins later confirmed that the VA employs a DOGE liaison.

The Trump administration is reportedly set to slash 80,000 jobs from the VA to return it to 2019 staffing levels at 400,000 employees.

The piece cited Democrat Washington Sen. Patty Murray, who stated that DOGE “may have barged into the VA.” Collins criticized the reporter for using the senator’s allegations to refer to the unconfirmed reports as a rumor.

“And then you go to Patty Murray, saying that ‘we’ve heard and DOGE may have barged into the VA today.’ Unconfirmed heresy,” Collins continued. “You know what I would have done if I were a member of Congress and probably done that? Unconfirmed report, but you didn’t put unconfirmed report. So Patricia, I want to work with you, but I need you to commit to me that you’re not gonna do this … No, I want to hear the answer first. Are you committing not to do rumors? Because you’re scaring my VA employees about this and you’re scaring my veterans.”

“I will do that … The lede was that there was a DOGE person there,” Kime answered, which Collins confirmed. “I take issue with parsing out my stuff, but that’s fine.”

Kime further argued she was never told that the VA hired a DOGE liaison, but that a single employee from Elon Musk’s agency happened to be working at the VA. In response, Collins promised to be the “most transparent VA secretary” and to help out reporters who write the truth.

“As we look at this, Patricia, I want you to know something,” Collins said. When you look at this headline, ‘you’re accessing computer systems.’ I want to work with you a lot as we go forward. We’re going to have a lot of time together. But I’m gonna have any reporter scaring my employees and scaring the veterans. And that’s what this is doing. Let’s get it right. I’m the most transparent VA secretary we’ve had yet. I’m on video, I’m on interviews, I do everything I possibly can to push back against everything I’m hearing. So we got a team that will help you, but I need your commitment to help me too.”

Kime compared the debunked information about the VA to DOGE employees accessing a sensitive payment system at the Treasury Department that are used to make U.S. government payments and hold the Social Security numbers of almost every American. White House senior adviser Elon Musk, who oversees DOGE, said Monday that the agency has made great progress in identifying and eliminating the federal government’s wasteful and fraudulent spending.