The interview the VA didn’t want you to hear.

Last week, WAMU reporter David Schultz attempted to interview Tommie Canady about the poor treatment he said veterans were receiving from the VA. In the middle of the interview, however, VA communications specialist named Gloria Hairston “stopped Schultz and wouldn’t let him leave until he handed over his [recording] equipment.” After significant public outcry, the VA returned Schultz’s equipment. Today, WAMU aired Schultz’s interview with Canady that the VA didn’t want the public to hear:

SCHULTZ: Canady recounted how, in his words, he was forced out of the military by a racist captain, and how after being discharged, he and his family were homeless for three years. … Canady described the conditions veterans encounter at DC’s VA hospital.

CANADY: They don’t get the proper care they’re supposed to by the nurses. I spent months in here. These guys — some of these guys spend years in here. We know exactly what goes on in this hospital, and they hide it. And it’s time for it to come out to the public. This is sad.

Schultz noted that Canady became “visibly upset” when Hairston came up and told him he couldn’t “talk anymore.” Listen here:

Transcript:

SCHULTZ: VA officials did not want Tommy Canady speaking to any reporters without first signing an official release. The 56-year-old veteran attended the public meeting held at the same hospital where he periodically receives treatment for a terminal illness. I interviewed him in a hallway outside the auditorium where he earlier spoke to a standing-room only crowd.

CANADY: I’d really like to say the whole story; it really makes the whole thing, if you don’t mind.

SCHULTZ: I don’t mind at all.

SCHULTZ: Canady recounted how, in his words, he was forced out of the military by a racist captain, and how after being discharged, he and his family were homeless for three years.

Hairston of the VA hospital’s public affairs department approached, and she said the interview could not continue because Canady had not signed a release.

HAIRSTON: I can’t allow you to use this.

SCHULTZ: I’m going to use this.

HAIRSTON: He can’t talk anymore. That’s it. I can’t do it, sir. He can’t do it.

SCHULTZ: You have a right to talk if you want to talk.

CANADY: Who are you? Just tell me who you are.

HAIRSTON: I’m Gloria Hairston, public affairs here at the VA medical center.

CANADY: Why are you telling me that I have to keep my mouth shut? See, that’s the problem.

HAIRSTON: I didn’t say you have to keep your mouth shut. You don’t have to keep your mouth shut.

CANADY: Then why are you telling me I can’t do this interview?

HAIRSTON: (INAUDIBLE) Can’t do this interview.

SCHULTZ: Hairston walked away and called for security as Canady continued, now becoming visibly upset.

CANADY: No, I heard her say she’s going to seize this tape. No, she won’t if I put it in my hands. She better not try to seize it. And I mean it. Or you’re going to have to physically touch me –

SCHULTZ: Let’s calm down.

SCHULTZ: Canady described the conditions veterans encounter at DC’s VA hospital.

CANADY: They don’t get the proper care they’re supposed to by the nurses. I spent months in here. These guys — some of these guys spend years in here. We know exactly what goes on in this hospital, and they hide it. And it’s time for it to come out to the public. This is sad.

SCHULTZ: He also labeled the VA as racist.

CANADY: These black guys, they can’t get their benefits like the white guys. Count the numbers and you’ll see what I mean. People come in here, every one of them that go through the same thing we do, got a higher percentage than we do, and some of us don’t even have an (INAUDIBLE) percentage, and we file before they did. Doctors have given me 100 percent from California to Washington, DC, and I still have not received my money. At last count, it was almost $800,000, and these people have not paid me a penny.

SCHULTZ: The interview had already ended when Hairston returned with four security officers and demanded that I surrender my equipment. Most of the equipment was later returned, but Hairston kept the flash card containing the interview and other recordings, saying that she planned to erase it. After several media outlets reported the incident, and at least two journalism advocacy groups sent letters of protest to the VA — along with a similar letter from WAMU’s general manager Caryn Mathes — the VA arranged to return the flash card, which had not been erased, to WAMU news director Jim Asendio on Friday night.