NTD Newsroom Full Broadcast (June 14)

Welcome to NTD Newsroom. I'm Kevin Hogan. In this NTD exclusive, Steve Lance sat down with U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins. They talked about leading the department through faith and compassion, cutting wait times for veterans, and the historic parade in Washington celebrating the Army's 250th anniversary happening today. Here it is. I'm Steve Lance, and I'm in the nation's capital. Tonight we bring you an NTD exclusive with U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins. As an Iraq War veteran and an active Air Force chaplain, he gives us insight into the role faith and compassion play in fueling what he sees as his continued service to our nation. Secretary Collins came into the role set on cutting regulations across the department and elevating the quality of care for veterans. He shares how the unique and intimate dynamic of the Trump administration 2.0 is making this goal achievable and at a rapid pace. Here's my conversation with Secretary Doug Collins. Secretary Collins, thank you so much for sitting down with us. Glad to be with you. It's great to have you. Secretary, your department, since President Trump's second term, has reduced disability compensation backlog claims by 25%. Talk to us about why this was a priority for you and how you addressed it. I'd love to. It's one of the things that gets measured. In the VA system, we're a hospital system like every other hospital system in the country, except for one thing, we take care of veterans. And also we have a pretty good, what I call, large number of board of directors who sit on Capitol Hill. So when they look at us, they look at several things. They look at wait times. Are the veterans getting taken care of? Are they getting their claims processed? Or on the disability side, they look at how fast or how quickly those processed disability claims are. What's happened over the past few years, COVID started the trend, but then they never got better. Even though we added millions of dollars and lots of people, we still had 260,000 of our over 125-day backlog of claims. So what we said was, well, it gets measured, it gets done. And we said, look, we're going to start bringing this down. As soon as I had my deputy secretary, Paul Lawrence, come on, who had experience at VBA, I said, let's focus this intently on getting this down. And since then we've done 25%. So we're under 200,000, first time in a little over two years, I believe it is, and we're moving down even faster to get that. Why it matters is because the veteran is not having to wait for a decision. They're actually getting their decisions. These ones have been, think about this, 120, 140, 130 days. They've been waiting three and four months for a decision to even move forward. So this helps us not only get better customer service, but it also makes sure that our system's working like it should. I want to talk to you about, obviously, the veterans, but also the veterans' families and those that are Gold Star families. This is an area that you've been really focused on, shifting the Office of Survivors Assistance under your direct leadership. Why was this move so important? And how has it changed the way that the VA serves Gold Star families? This is an easy one for us. This should be one of the things that we do and should not think about. Folks who are going through this difficult situation in their life, the last thing they need is sort of a clinical approach to the benefits that they either have or don't have. And some think that they're going to have more than they have. Some are going to get more than they think they have. But it's knowing how they can get it. I describe it like this. There's a clinical way to talk about somebody who's passed away, and there's a funeral home director's way to talk about somebody who's passed away. We were too much on what I call the clinical side. Your loved one is dead. Here's the end result. Sort of from that other perspective, that compassionate funeral home director side is, your loved one's dead. Let's see if we can walk you through this. We want to make sure that we'll do everything we can to take a very difficult time and make it as easy as possible. So that's why I said, look, the previous administration buried it, sort of got it away from where it was, which it was not being taken care of as it should be. We were getting complaints about it. I said, let's move it back to where it's supposed to be, under the secretary's office, so we can give a white glove treatment. We make sure that they get at least heard and cared for, because anyone going through that kind of a loss is someone who needs more support, and they also need answers at the same time. You mentioned the principle of compassion. Talk to us about how this sort of guides what you do, specifically when it comes to dealing with these Gold Star families and actually creating a survivor outreach team. Well, it just goes back to the understanding of empathy in what we do. We're a great organization that has one purpose and one purpose, only to take care of veterans. That's our only purpose, and we're large. We're the largest non-DOD department in the whole federal government. We take care of people on a daily basis with their medical needs, the most sensitive needs of their life. And for me, it's just understanding. One of the things I greatly love, not just in the survivor side, is I go to the hospitals and I get to see face-to-face. I sit at their hospital beds, I pray with them, I talk with them, because it's what I've done basically all my life. But now it's in a way that I can say, how can we make sure we're doing it the best we can? We've got great employees who do great things, but many times the VA as a building, as an organization, has become too unwieldy. Because if you get so large and you sort of take care of yourself, you forget your mission. Well, for me, it came back to saying, what is our mission? It's a service organization, not an employment agency, not anything else. It's a service agency that says our one group is veterans. That's who we're going to take care of. Compassion is just reaching out and having the empathy that you would want somebody else to show to you. You are a veteran, were a veteran before becoming the VA secretary. Along with that, when you go to the hospital and you're talking to veterans or at events, how much of that sort of informs and inspires what you do? And what have been some of the biggest takeaways from what you're hearing from the folks? It inspires everything, because you speak a common language. And I think that's an interesting part. For the younger veterans I've had, and we will talk, I was in Iraq. And I can say, if I hear they're an Iraq veteran, I say, hey, where were you at? Where were you at? And sometimes we'll have crossed the same dirt, so to speak. And so that makes it just an instant connection. But we can talk about things that were in my purview, the 23 plus years that I've been in. But then also going back to our Vietnam veterans, our Korea veterans, our World War II precious veterans who are still around with us, and even our Gulf Storm and the others. It's a commonality of military experience. It's a commonality of going through some of the same things. You know what your family's going through. You went through a basic training. You went through somebody yelling at you. You learned how to put on a uniform. You learned that you march in a straight line. You know, for Air Force, well, you know, we're not in my other branches. And it's that sort of give and take. So they'll pick on me. I get to pick on them. But we're speaking a similar language. And I think that matters so much when we're talking, because they want to be heard. And it's important for our doctors and our nurses also to speak that language too. So if they say, a veteran says, I was at a FOB, and they don't understand what they're talking about, well, that's a forward operating mode. They need to understand that language, because that's the way they communicate. So being a veteran and having a lot of veterans that work with us is very, very important. So another very serious issue that I'd like to discuss with you, which is so many of the veterans that come back have an invisible wound, which is that of PTSD, post-traumatic stress syndrome. Last month, your department announced $52 million in grants for local organizations for suicide prevention. What is it that the public should know about PTSD and our veterans? I think the biggest thing they need to know is that, one, it is real, and it can come up in different ways in different people. It doesn't have to be something that they experience every moment of the day. There's some that it pops up at different times. There's some that it is debilitating, that they can't go to work or they can't function in a family. It causes relationships to get strained. And then for some, it could be much more infrequent, but it still causes hardships between relational issues more than any. What we're looking at is people need to know that there's a lot of times people just need to be reached out to. There might be a way that you can fix anything going on, but you can be there to listen. You can be there to talk. You can be there to remind them that there is a purpose in living. I think because PTSD and traumatic brain injury, which goes along with that, is very difficult, chronic pain. We have a lot of our members who have been multiple deployments. They come back and they have pain that just is with them all the time. They need the surrounding people to understand what they're going through to help them get through each and every day, because if not, they lose hope. When they lose hope, that is the first and classic slide into death by suicide, which is still way too prevalent in our country now among veterans. What would your message be to those veterans who may be in a situation where they don't know where to go and may feel like they're being forgotten? Reach out anywhere. Reach out to the VA. Go to the hospital. Go to a clinic. Dial 988. That's our veteran crisis line. All they have to do is hit one and somebody is there to talk to them every day, every minute of the year. They can have somebody to talk to. Don't feel like they're alone. It's also something for our other folks in our communities to understand. If you know of a veteran, if you know somebody that says maybe they're not acting right, a lot of us have text chains with our friends, our buddies. If someone stops communicating on a text chain, reach out. Why? They may not have been a veteran, but if they are a veteran, they may want to know why they stopped communicating. That could be a moment that they're struggling. It's not just the veteran themselves who struggle and for them to reach out. We're going to give them every opportunity, but I think it's a community, whether it's the VA or our nonprofit groups or VSOs or anybody else, to reach out and make sure that we're reaching those that may not be able to speak for themselves right now. I think you make many really important points, but something that strikes me having two childhood friends who are twins, both of them going into the military. You talk about it affecting different people. They were largely the same person, looked the same. One of them committed suicide. The other one is perfectly fine, both seeing the same action overseas. It depends. It's sort of like life. Everybody can see the same thing and react differently. I know some people who can watch a horror movie and they're traumatized and another person starts laughing in the middle of it. It's just the way we see it. However, in a military setting, in a situation like this, it's really a disturbing issue when it then begins to affect life. It begins to affect that they don't have a way to process it. That's where it really becomes known for not only the community, but our VA, our clinicians, and others as well to adjust it. Again, I can't emphasize this enough. It will affect people differently. The treatments will affect each other differently as well. Some will respond to some things where some won't respond to some things. Now, you've spoken about wanting your department to make a difference for veterans. Since taking over as secretary, has there been a moment that's really stood out to you personally? I think there is when we start we talked about earlier. That would be the disability backlog going down. I see it when I start getting our social media accounts. When I first got there, it was, you know, help us do this, do this. We started to get the laundry list, which I enjoy so much. Now, we're starting to get responses on social media, phone calls to congressional office saying, hey, you know, in the last few months, I'm getting my appointments quicker. I mean, the things are getting better. It's those little things like that that really, for me, begin to say, hey, we're making a difference in the lives of our veterans and also our employees as well. We've got a lot of change and a lot of stuff going on. But when we're moving the ball forward, that's the biggest difference that I can see. Now, a little bit of palace intrigue here. We've been hearing from a few cabinet members that there's actually a real sense of camaraderie among department heads. We'll leave out Elon and Secretary Besson. But is that true? And has this kind of relationship led to tangible collaboration and results that might not have happened otherwise? Oh, very much so. I've said this before. This is a different cabinet. The president was, you know, not because I'm there because I'm maybe the weakest link, so to speak. But I don't think so. Because I think that what we have is he looked for a cabinet that is, and I'll use military terms, too many times you brought cabinets in, you brought sort of these specialists, old statesmen, people who had sort of been through the systems of all these. And what President Trump did was said, I want somebody that's strategic, that can think big picture, but I want them to be tactical. In other words, think about what could happen, but how do you actually get it done? And for me, my staff will laugh at you. I don't stay in my office. The folks outside, if I want to go to somebody's office, I just walk down the hall and go ask them a question. I don't wait for them to give me a paper. I just want to know right then. Don't pick up the phone and call. I get involved with constituents. I get involved with veterans who need help. And across the cabinet, you see that. So how does that affect this weekend? Bobby Kennedy and I were texting over the weekend about an issue that we had with someone that was going back home and dealing with an FDA issue. Pete, the Secretary of Defense and I have done the same thing. And we just signed a memorandum understanding that aligns DOD and VA in ways that we've never seen before, because we both understand that we're sort of, I call us fraternal twins. We do two different things, but we're the same people. So that's the kind of thing, I mean, Tulsi Gabbard, you go Pam Bondi, you go Brooks Rawlings, you go Scott Turner, Lori, that just all of us have worked together, Lise Eldon, in a way that we're friends and we've worked together before. Many of us on the Hill, but some in private organizations that say our job is to get stuff done for this country. The President put out a huge vision, and it's our job to carry it out in these departments and not get weighed down by that. Speaking to that, you've obviously seen how the bureaucracy works working on Capitol Hill. How much of your experience on the Hill are you able to apply here to cut through the red tape? A lot, in the sense that I respect my colleagues on the Hill greatly. We work together, but I also know they have a job, and I know what that job is. I've done it for eight years at the highest levels up there, and so it doesn't intimidate me that when they need to say something or do something, I understand what they're doing. But it gives me the opportunity to go back and say, okay, I know what you're trying to do here, but here's what we're trying to do. Here's what we really need, and if you want to fix it, here's how you can fix it. Just a month or two ago, Mike Boss is the Chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, and he had some legislation, and we see their legislation, and they ask us for our opinion on members' legislation. And from being on the Hill, I was reading through some of the bills, and I saw it was a bill about our Board of Appeals. And I said, well, we don't need this, but we do need several other things. So I just picked up and called the Chairman. I said, Chairman, hey, I know this is one of your members' bills. Would they be open to us helping rewrite this bill to get us something we actually need? And they do. So me understanding the legislative process, me understanding how the Hill works, I think has helped us a great deal at the VA. Doesn't mean that we're going to agree all the time. In fact, we won't, but it gives us an understanding of how we can find solutions. Hearing the stories about Vietnam veterans returning home after putting everything on the line and the way that they were treated and accepted here, with the Army's 250th birthday upon us and a grand military parade, what does an event like this mean for the veterans? I think it's just going to be special. I really do. And there's detractors saying, but no, there's sometimes you just need to celebrate. Sometimes you just need to sit back. And I think the President gets this, that there's a national ethos out there that says, we're proud of the Americans. We're proud of our military. We're proud of 250 years of the Army, 250 years of the Navy, 250 years of the Marine Corps. That's pretty good. I'm Air Force. We'll tick one of our 75 to 80 years right now, but we're getting there. But we're proud of what we do. And I think for every Army person that has served and served that uniform, they're tracing their lineage back to the Revolutionary War. They're tracing their lineage back to the ones who put on that citizen soldier who went out and said, no, we're going to be a country. We're not going to be told what to do. So I just think it's going to be something. And so for the people out there who want to talk about it and just come on, this is our country. This is a pride in what we take. And those are the men and women who are on the line when you're asleep at night. They're the ones who are going to get called. They're the ones that's waiting for the President to send them when they need to protect this country. Maybe a day is worth thinking about how good we have it. I want to talk about your faith. You're still a chaplain in the military. Talk to us about how your faith has guided you through the process and how it still may. I can't think of doing my job without it. It's like my glasses. I mean, I can see technically without my glasses. But when I put my glasses on, I see much clearer. Well, my faith is that way. It's not something I can take on and off. It's who I have to have to see what I believe God has called me to do. And so faith, it makes me want to help others. It makes me compassionate, but it also makes me firm resolved that sometimes you have to stand and fight. There's things that are not worth compromising on. And this job for me is taking care of people. It's actually not accepting the bureaucratic answer. It's not accepting we've always done it that way before. I believe God's put us at a special time and a special purpose for a lot of things. So for me, faith is all. I mean, I have outside my Savior, Jesus, I have nothing. And so I think that's the thing that drives me. And it also gives me another perspective. And there's several verses. And I used to like, there's a little end to this in the scripture. But there was a young man who I was, we were similar age growing up. And one day he got up and he was giving his testimony. We was just talking about his life at church one day. And he says, you know, we've had all these problems. He'd just gotten married. And so with all these problems, he said, but I woke up one day and I looked at all the bills and looked at everything. He said, I knew that God was going to take care of me, and they just couldn't eat me. And I thought to myself, you know, that's a unique way of putting the verse that what can man do to me, God is in control. And so for me going to Congress, taking on media, taking on everything we're going to, my faith is built on not what man's opinion is based on what he's given me. At the conclusion of this four year term, the legacy of Secretary Doug Collins, what do you hope it to be? That he made a difference. That's it. Secretary Collins, greatly appreciate you sitting down with us. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. The sincere wish to make a difference and preserve the freedoms gifted to us by those who came before is what has guided generations of service members and continues to ignite our troops. As we look ahead to the 250th birthday of our nation, may we continue to honor those who've made this great experiment possible. Thank you for joining us for this NTD exclusive interview with Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Doug Collins. That was NTD Steve Lance sitting down with U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Doug Collins. The secretary shared personal reflections leading the VA, visiting hospitals, speaking face-to-face with veterans, offering compassion. He emphasized that despite the vast size of the department, they have a clear mission. Collins describes the VA first and foremost as a service agency. And the Army's 250th anniversary parade is scheduled to start at 6.30 p.m. and today's Paul Graney is on the ground in Washington. He has everything we need to know about the We're here on Constitution Avenue in D.C. right by the Washington Monument and just a stone's throw from the end of the parade celebrating the U.S. Army's 250th birthday. Over 6,000 soldiers, 150 military vehicles, and more than 50 aircraft will take part. Heavy equipment has been transported from as far away as Texas. The parade begins at 6.30 p.m. Eastern and is expected to last about an hour. It commemorates 250 years since the Army was founded, so expect to see uniforms and equipment from the Revolutionary War right up to the present day. Event planners estimate as many as 200,000 people could participate in today's festivities, so we asked them what they were most excited to see. The fact that we get to celebrate our family members who are in service, like my dad, Gardner Mendez, and my brother, Sean McMurray, salute you and thank you for your service. And I came here because the country is in desperate need and the more together we spend time together, the more better it is for our country. It's the awareness. People have such negative connotations as far as Army and force and being the tough guy, but if you see some of the faces here, I mean, they're the age of my kids and some of them grandkids, in fact, and I see their heart and their love. I'm gonna tear up for this nation, so I appreciate it. Happy birthday, Army! This parade is something that President Trump has wanted to do since his first term. Back in 2017, he watched the Grand Bastille Day Parade in France. Now today, on the Army's birthday, the President has promised an unforgettable celebration, one like you've never seen before. The celebrations are estimated to cost between 25 and 45 million dollars. Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll says it's a unique opportunity to market the Army and boost recruitment, something the military has been heavily focused on of late. I'm hoping young people who are four years away from joining and five years away from joining, and maybe early in their career but thinking about switching, I hope they catch a taste for what it's like to serve in the United States Army and just be a part of a group that is so driven by excellence. The events kicked off early this morning. Vice President J.D. Vance was at Arlington Cemetery to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Since then, there's been activities and celebrations at the National Mall, drone and weapon displays, as well as meet-and-greet with Army soldiers. Looking forward, again, the parade starts at 6.30 p.m. Eastern and will be streamed right here on NTD News. After the parade, President Trump will address the crowd. That's before a concert at the Ellipse. And to cap it all off, a grand fireworks display at 9.45 p.m. Reporting from Washington, D.C., Paul Graney, NTD News. More than 100 cities across the United States are reportedly holding counter-rallies opposing President Trump's policies. NTD's David Lam has more from California. While it's a day of celebration in Washington, D.C., for the Army's 250th birthday, as well as President Trump's birthday, many who have opposed Trump's policy have organized protests and counter-rallies. No matter who you are, no matter where you come from, this is still a democratic state, and we need to fight for our rights. We have a Bill of Rights that was constructed for a reason. We're a melting pot. We support immigrants. We have the right to due process and the rule of law. And according to the No King's website, people in different states are organizing over 1,800 events like this. Crowds of protesters gathered at the California State Capitol building Saturday morning, holding signs targeting the president. Well, I think immediately what's causing a lot of troubles right now are the raids on so many innocent people. Another resident of the Sacramento area commented on the protests from a neutral perspective. The people have the rights to protest, and the government has the right to maintain peace and order. White House press secretary Caroline Levitt has said the president has no issues with peaceful protests. In Sacramento, California, David Lam, NTD News. A Minnesota lawmaker and her husband were shot and killed in their home early today by someone posing as a police officer. Meanwhile, a second lawmaker and his wife were also shot and wounded. Governor Tim Walz said the shootings appeared to be politically motivated. Our state lost a great leader, and I lost a dearest of friends. Speaker Hortman was someone who served the people of Minnesota with grace, compassion, humor, and a sense of service. She was a formidable public servant. About 2 a.m. this morning, there was an original call in the city of Champlain where there was an individual that had shot Senator Hoffman and his wife. State Representative Melissa Hortman and her spouse were shot and killed in their Brooklyn Park home. State Senator John Hoffman and his wife were shot multiple times in Champlain, Minnesota. Both underwent surgery. Governor Walz said authorities are cautiously optimistic they will survive. Both lawmakers are members of the Minnesota Democratic Farmer Labor Party. Authorities have identified a person of interest named Vance Bolter. He is still at large and considered armed and dangerous. Officials also said no King's Flyers were found in the suspect's car. That's the name of a nationwide protest happening today. In response, organizers canceled all no King's protests in the state. President Trump said those responsible will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, adding that horrific violence will not be tolerated in the United States. Attorney General Pam Bondi said the FBI is on the ground investigating the case alongside state and local partners. Israel warned of more attacks on Iran today after Tehran fired waves of missiles and drones that killed three people and wounded dozens in Israel. NTD's Daniel Monahan has the latest as tensions in the region escalate. Destroyed homes and piles of rubble can be seen in the aftermath of an Iranian strike near a residential area in central Israel. A resident of Tel Aviv reacted to the Iranian retaliatory attack. My wife, she's Israeli. She's very, very anxious and she wants to leave as soon as possible. She's talking about going over the Jordan. The Israeli military urged civilians to head to shelter for hours. Iran was retaliating for a series of blistering Israeli attacks on its nuclear and military facilities on Friday. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel has paved the path to Tehran. We will strike at every site, every target of the Ayatollah regime. A government spokesperson says the Israeli Air Force was operating freely over Iranian airspace. This is a space where the Air Force aircraft are operating for the first time. This is the deepest point in which we have operated so far in Iran. Israel's assault on Friday used warplanes as well as drones smuggled into the country in advance to assault key facilities and kill top generals and scientists. Iran's UN ambassador said 78 people were killed and more than 320 wounded in the attacks. Israel said the barrage was necessary before Iran got any closer to building an atomic weapon and says the operation could last weeks. It is urging Iran's people to rise up against their rulers. Former Crown Prince of Iran and opposition leader-in-exile Reza Pahlavi blamed the Iranian regime for what he called its incompetent and criminal leaders for dragging Iran into war. Pahlavi says the regime is now at its most fragile and weakest state, but its collapse can only be achieved through the powerful hands of the Iranian people. The Iranian government has restricted internet access, but entrepreneur Elon Musk has activated Starlink in the country. Daniel Monaghan, NTD News. The upcoming Army Parade is part of a week of events to celebrate the history and founding of the U.S. Army. As we mentioned, it will include 6,600 soldiers, 150 ground vehicles, 50 aircraft, 34 horses, two mules and a dog. We're expecting to see some ceremonial units wearing uniforms inspired by the Continental Army of the 13 Colonies, which was formed on June 14, 1775, just months after the start of the Revolutionary War. Those are the Fife and Drum Corps and the Commander-in-Chief's Guard. The parade will pay tribute to the 101st Airborne that fought in World War II and the 25th Infantry Division that served during the Vietnam War era, known as the Tropic Lightning for their jungle environment specialization, just to name a few, and the Army's 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment that provided cover and transport for Navy SEALs that took out terrorist mastermind Osama Bin Laden is expected to fly over the parade route. Keep your eyes in the skies for World War II-era craft like the Mitchell Medium Bomber, the P-51 Mustang Fighter, and the C-47 Skytrain Transporter. But why would Air Forces be in the Army Parade? Because they were part of the United States Army Air Forces before the U.S. Air Force established in 1970-1947. And thank you for watching.