HomeTop StoriesTrump chooses former Rep. Doug Collins as veterans affairs secretary

Trump chooses former Rep. Doug Collins as veterans affairs secretary

President-elect Donald Trump said Thursday he will nominate Doug Collins, a former member of the House of Representatives from Georgia, to lead his administration’s Department of Veteran Affairs.

Collins, an Iraq war veteran who left Congress in 2021, was a fierce defender of Trump during his 2019 impeachment inquiry.

“Doug is a veteran himself, currently serving our nation as a chaplain at the United States Air Force Reserve Command, and having fought for our country in the Iraq War,” Trump said in a statement Thursday. “We must take care of our brave men and women in uniform, and Doug will be a great advocate for our active duty members, veterans and military families to ensure they get the support they need.”

Collins, who has been an Air Force reservist since 2002 and deployed to Iraq in 2008 while stationed at Balad Air Force Base, said he was honored to accept the nomination and pledged to provide the best care to veterans.

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“Our heroes deserve the best care and support,” he wrote on earned.”

The Cabinet post requires Senate confirmation.

Collins, 58, was first elected to the House of Representatives in 2012. He served until 2021 after an unsuccessful bid for the Senate last year.

He currently chairs his state’s chapter of the America First Policy Institute, a conservative think tank of former Trump administration officials that was founded in 2021.

Collins was an outspoken supporter of Trump during his first impeachment inquiry, in 2019, when he was the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee. The Democratic-led House of Representatives impeached Trump, but the Republican majority in the Senate acquitted him.

After Trump lost the 2020 election, Collins appeared on Fox News and cast doubt on what he called “irregularities” in Georgia’s results. More recently, he has criticized the federal cases against Trump, referring to special counsel Jack Smith’s indictment against Trump as a “fraud” during a Sept. 20 episode of his podcast “The Doug Collins Show.”

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Trump has expressed support for Collins in the past, after pitching him as a potential challenger to Georgia Governor Brian Kemp in 2022. Collins ultimately decided not to run for governor or seek a seat in the Senate during the midterm elections.

Trump has drawn criticism for comments first reported by The Atlantic in 2020 in which he disparaged fallen service members as “losers” and “suckers.” Former Trump White House Chief of Staff John Kelly later confirmed The Atlantic’s reporting.

Kelly told The New York Times in interviews published last month that Trump “could never wrap his arms around why people should serve the country in uniform,” and struggled to understand their selflessness and sacrifice. Trump’s campaign has denied Kelly’s claims.

Trump continues to announce his cabinet choices at a rapid pace. Earlier on Thursday, he mentioned anti-vaccine activist and former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as his choice for Secretary of Health and Human Services.

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On Tuesday, he said he would nominate Fox News host and military veteran Pete Hegseth as defense secretary.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com

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