The White House chief of staff says President Barack Obama is "madder than hell" about reports of treatment delays at veterans' hospitals across the country, according to Reuters.
Top aide Denis McDonough tells CBS' "Face the Nation" that Obama is demanding that Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki and others in the administration "continue to fix these things until they're functioning the way that our veterans believe they should," Reuters reported.
Allegations of preventable deaths that may be linked to delays at the Phoenix hospital have triggered an election-year uproar, according to Reuters.
On Friday, undersecretary of Health Dr. Robert Petzel, resigned in a move critics said was an effort at damage control, but McDonough sidestepped questions about whether Shinseki had Obama's full confidence, Reuters reported.
Petzel's resignation came a day after he appeared alongside Shinseki at a congressional hearing about accusations that medical facilities in Phoenix covered up long wait times for patients, including 40 who died while awaiting care, according to Reuters.
House Republicans have set a vote for Wednesday on legislation that would give Shinseki greater power to fire or demote executives and administrators at the agency and its 152 medical centers, Reuters reported.
Dr. Sam Foote, a whistleblower in the VA case, said on "Fox News Sunday" that Petzel's resignation was "a great first step," and said there was no way officials in Washington did not know of the issue, according to Reuters.
"They knew this was a big problem," he said, adding he believed Shinseki should stay in his job to keep the focus on fixing the problem, Reuters reported. "I think our best bet at this point is to keep the secretary on board. But I think the president needs to keep him on a pretty short leash," Foote said.
