Does everyone in the Trump administration know how to own the media, or have they learned from watching how President Trump does it for the better part of a decade? The work done by the Department of Government Efficiency has gripped Washington, DC, with fear because they’ve been exposing hordes of government waste. It’s striking close to home for the pet pork projects of the political class.
A reporter's story about DOGE regarding Veterans Affairs did not sit well with Doug Collins. The Veterans Affairs secretary opted to whip out the receipts while being interviewed with reporter Patricia Kime of Military.com over the “rumor” piece she peddled regarding DOGE having people at the department. She could’ve asked Mr. Collins directly, who was incensed as it caused a panic among his staff and the veteran community. The VA has a DOGE liaison; that’s not a secret. Collins warned that he wasn’t going to tolerate reporters who spread fear and mass panic via fake news (via RealClearPolitics):
VA Secretary Doug Collins confronts this "journalist" and completely catcher her on her heels:
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) March 12, 2025
"All I seem to be doing lately is fighting back against innuendo and rumor stories...part of it is with YOU!" pic.twitter.com/7p1gsBh0UE
DOUG COLLINS: One of the issues that we're having is, and it's something here, I need your help on something. 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 "we've heard that," that hurts my veterans. That scares my veterans. That scares my employees because it's not true.
Will you commit to not doing that in the future?
PATRICIA KIKME: Well, there was a DOGE representative at the VA.
DOUG COLLINS: I have a VA employee who is our DOGE liaison. You knew that, and you could ask that question. But when you got the answer, my question here is, I need you to commit to not starting off, "Rumors began circulating..."
It's either true or false, Patricia. And then you go to Patty Murphy saying that we've heard and DOGE may have barged into the VA today. Unconfirmed hearsay. You know what you'd have done if I was a member of Congress and probably done that? Unconfirmed report, but you didn't put "unconfirmed report."
So Patricia, I wanna work together with you, but I need you to commit to me that you're not gonna do this.
PATRICIA KIME: That's fair, I'm working on it, and I have, I have been oh actually I have another question based on that. Thank you very much.
DOUG COLLINS: 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.
PATRICIA KIME: That's fair, a rumor is different than if I have a source--
DOUG COLLINS: Then you source it to our PR people and let them know, because you know something, I've got people who are reporting stuff right now who aren't even calling us. They don't even get a they don't even get something from. They don't even call us to check it.
PATRICIA KIME: Well, that's not right.
DOUG COLLINS: Well, this isn't right either.
PATRICIA KIME: OK. Well, that's fair, but I did call about that. I did call.
DOUG COLLINS: And you got the answer, but yet you still reported it as a rumor. Which is it? Is it a rumor or did you get it confirmed?
PATRICIA KIME: There is a DOGE person there. There is.
DOUG COLLINS: Nobody hid that from you. Nobody. We answered it, but it was reported as a rumor.
PATRICIA KIME: I take issue with you parsing out my stuff.
DOUG COLLINS: And in the headline of the story--
PATRICIA KIME: I didn't write that.
DOUG COLLINS: I don't care who wrote it, it's your byline. Think about what it says here. "Elon Musk aide is now working at VA accessing computer systems"
Ooohhh.
PATRICIA KIME: That's a true statement.
DOUG COLLINS: "A DOGE employee," which is funny because they're VA employees, a liaison.
PATRICIA KIME: I was not told that. It was a DOGE employee, one DOGE employee.
DOUG COLLINS: As we look at this, Patricia, I want you to know something. When you look at this headline, "accessing computer system."
I want to work with you a lot as we go forward. We have a lot of time together. But I'm not 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. We got a team that will help you, but I need your to help me too, OK?
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What a smackdown.
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