Did the VA remove Bibles and ban Christmas carols? Fact check

[left-of-center2012]

During a speech to the American Legion, Vice President Mike Pence claimed Wednesday that under the Obama administration, Veterans Affairs hospitals had removed Bibles and banned Christmas carols.

"This administration will always make room for the spiritual needs of our heroes at the VA," Pence told the crowd, before citing a lawsuit to have a World War II Bible removed from a memorial table.

"It's really no surprise," Pence said, "because under the Obama administration, VA hospitals were removing Bibles and even banning Christmas carols in an effort to be politically correct."

Facts: There are a handful of instances in which Bibles were removed from public displays at VA hospitals during the Obama administration and at least one instance of religious carols being banned in the public area of a VA hospital.
But these instances, some of which were reversed after protests, were the result of decisions by local staff, not directives from the Obama administration.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/30/politics/mike-pence-bible-veterans-affairs-fact-check/index.html

[gratuitous]

1. Note Pence's weasel words: "Under the Obama administration"

"Why, I never said the Obama administration ordered these actions, just that they took place under the Obama administration. It's not my fault if some people drew the erroneous conclusion that the Obama administration had anything to do with it."

Naturally, if you use the same locutional legerdemain against the Trump administration - even if the Trump administration ordered some outrageous action - Pence, Trump, and the rest of the Weasel Brigade will cry to high heaven about the unwarranted and unfair besmirchment of their sterling reputation. Like if you were to, I don't know, accuse Trump of doctoring a hurricane projection map with a Sharpie marker to try to cover up a wholly erroneous tweet. I'm just making up an extreme example out of thin air; I realize nobody could possibly be that small and petty.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

2. As a Vietnam Era veteran, being treated at the VA...

I can refute the Pence lie.

Iv'e been to numerous Veteran's Administration hospitals in several states and never seen a Bible on public display. Even in Alabama, no Bibles were on public display, back when I was an out-patient there. As expected, other patients could be seen reading a Bible, in the Bible-belt region of the USA; but it was their right to practice religion. Perhaps Trump and Pence should try reading the Bible, instead of playing golf, every Sunday.

During the Christmas holiday, I was an inpatient at a VA Hospital and no Christmas carols were sung, because many other VA patients are Muslims, Jews and other religions.

Trump cronies recently cut funding to the VA; and his demon-like portrait should be removed, after he get's put in prison, where he belongs.