By Eric Stock

CHANNAHON – U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger isn’t ready to join colleague Rodney Davis is calling for the ousting of the new Veterans Affairs director, but told WJBC’s Scott Laughlin, Bob McDonald still has his work cut out for him.

“There’s a lot of back-end stuff that still needs fixed, there’s still a long waiting list,” Kinzinger said. “I’m not ready to call to fire anyone but I can tell you we’ve got to watch this.”

PODCAST: Listen to Scott and Colleen’s interview with Kinzinger on WJBC.

Kinzinger said veterans trying to get care at medical facilities closer to home are still an obstacle, even though a new federal law enables them to get coverage for care at non-VA facilities.

Planned Parenthood

Kinzinger said the undercover videos recently released by an anti-abortion group to shame Planned Parenthood are ‘barbaric’ but said he’s not sure whether that will derail budget bill.

“I believe in defunding Planned Parenthood but I don’t think you are going to see a government shutdown over it,” Kinzinger said. “You’ll probably see some fights and arguments over it and it will probably get down to ultimately what can get done.”

There have been protests across the country, including one in Bloomington-Normal, calling for Congress to strip funding for Planned Parenthood after the videos were exposed showed Planned Parenthood officials negotiating sales of fetal tissue from abortions.

Presidential primary

There are 17 Republican presidential candidates. Kinzinger said he is endorsing Jeb Bush – not the one who’s leading the polls.

“At lot of people talk about Donald Trump having courage, I think frankly Jeb Bush has a lot of courage because he has said ‘I’m going to run the same guy in the primary that I am going to run in the general election,” Kinzinger said.

Kinzinger said he supports Bush’s stance on immigration, calling for border security and a pathway to citizenship, and Kinzinger said Bush will be able to win more of the Hispanic vote.

Eric Stock can be reached at [email protected].