Robert Wilkie Quotes
I learned at a very early age, listening to those around my family, that in order to be a commander, you had to walk your post.
Wilkie, Robert L. "Statement of Hon. Robert L. Wilkie, Nominee to be Secretary, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs." Hearing on the Nomination of Hon. Robert L. Wilkie to be Secretary of Veterans Affairs, United States Senate, Committee on Veterans' Affairs, 27 June 2018, U.S. Government Publishing Office, 2019, p. 11.
At the height of the Watergate scandal, the president wanted special prosecutor Archibald Cox fired, because Cox was developing evidence against the president. The attorney general, Elliot Richardson, refused to fire Cox and resigned. The chief of staff then turned to the deputy attorney general, William Ruckelshaus, who also refused and resigned. Finally, the Solicitor General, next in line of authority, agreed to fire the special prosecutor. These events happened on a Saturday night and became known as the “Saturday Night Massacre”. This event persuaded most Americans that Nixon was guilty of felonies and was desperately trying to cover things up. Congress would include “obstruction of justice” in it’s list of crimes that they would have impeached Nixon for had he not resigned.
Robert Leon Wilkie Jr. is an American lawyer and government official who served as the United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs from 2018 to 2021, during the Trump administration. He was previously Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness during the Trump administration, from November 2017 to July 2018. An Naval intelligence in the Reserve, he was Assistant Secretary of Defense for Legislative Affairs in the administration of President George W. Bush.