President Barack Obama is heading to Phoenix to promote his domestic agenda, but he has no plans to visit the infamous Veterans Affairs hospital there.
Obama is scheduled to speak at Central High School Thursday, just two miles away from the Phoenix Veterans Affairs Health Care hospital, but the Obama administration said that there are no plans for the president to make a stop,
The Weekly Standard is reporting.
The Phoenix VA healthcare system was at the center of the VA scandal that broke in April 2014, when
CNN reported that at least 40 veterans died while on waiting lists to see a doctor at the hospital.
The report said that the names of those who died were allegedly kept on a secret waiting list to conceal how long they were actually waiting to see a doctor, which isn't supposed to exceed two weeks.
Following the revelation at the VA system in Phoenix, it was learned that the problem was systemic, which ultimately led to the resignation of Veterans' Affairs Administration Secretary Eric Shinseki.
Pete Hegseth, CEO of
Concerned Veterans for America, issued a statement Tuesday over Obama's decision not to visit the Phoenix VA hospital.
"The Phoenix VA was ground zero in the secret wait list scandal that eventually revealed massive fraud and the deaths of dozens — if not hundreds — of veterans due to delayed healthcare at VA facilities across the country," Hegseth said.
"If President Obama wanted to . . . send a signal of strong leadership — he would take the time to visit the Phoenix VA hospital during his forthcoming trip to that neighborhood," he added.