Earlier this week, 22-year veteran and television personality Montel Williams made headlines for an emotional speech he gave about the ongoing VA scandal during a Memorial Day picnic in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. On Wednesday's radio program, Glenn praised Williams' willingness to speak so frankly about the issue and said he is "exactly right."
Watch Williams' Memorial Day speech below:
“If you saw me in the speech – I don’t think people understand why I feel this way,” Williams told Glenn while holding back tears. “I visit our guys at Walter Reed, Bethesda. I cook for our guys around the country. I cook for their family members, for the people who serve them.”
“I’m walking the walk my friend. And right now I am so offended and disgusted by what we are doing as a nation to the guys who let us live this democracy we have.”
TheBlaze.com was among the first and only media outlets to post Williams' speech, and he subsequently penned an op-ed for the the site detailing the extent of the problem and offering a few solutions. He has come under serious fire from many on the left for associating with Glenn and TheBlaze.
While Glenn and Williams certainly do not align on much politically, the treatment of our veterans is a topic in which they see eye-to-eye. Glenn invited Williams to join him on Thursday's Glenn Beck Program, and Williams passionately explained that he is simply looking for an outlet from which he can draw attention to the deplorable conditions our servicemen and women are arriving home to. Furthermore, he offered a substantiate, straight forward solutions that can - at the very least - begin to solve the problem and allow the American people to repay their debt to our veterans.
In the interview, an emotional Williams said that President Obama could order a surge over the next 90 days simply by issuing an order as Commander-in-Chief. If the different service branches brough soldiers in the reserves back into service on temporary active duty, they could man military hospitals and clear out the backlog in 90 days.
"Why do we need to do it with military personnel? Hear me, please understand, our soldiers are in pain and right now you can’t send a person who doesn’t understand how to speak the speak to a soldier, to understand and get him to open up unless it’s another soldier. So why don’t we employ the ones who are out of work right now?," Williams said.
“Direct each branch of the service to do this today – 90 days from now we’ll have a backlog cleared up and we’ll understand what the baseline is for what we now have to commit to, to pay for and to take care of our obligation and our debt to our soldiers.”
Williams, clearly getting choked up, said it was on the American people to fix this issue.
“It’s not the President, it’s not Congress, it’s not the Senate. It’s We The People owe this debt. You had a barbecue on Sunday? You did so on the backs of young people who can’t be treated. How dare you. Pay your debt.”