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The Death Benefits Battle Between the VA & Families of Veterans Who Died By Suicide; DHS Detains Georgetown Univ Fellow, Revokes His Visa; Finland Ranked "Happiest" Country Again, U.S. Sinks To 24th Place. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired March 20, 2025 - 14:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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[14:33:46]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: A CNN investigation has found that hundreds of families of veterans, who died by suicide after they we're discharged from active duty, have been denied crucial benefits.

Under strict V.A. rules, the families must submit medical documentation showing the death of their loved one stemmed from their time in the military, but that can sometimes be impossible.

CNN's Kyung Lah spoke with several surviving spouses.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

EMILY EVANS, SURVIVING SPOUSE: I feel stuck. We're stuck and the V.A. is keeping us there.

KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Emily Evans can't move forward.

(on camera): And your kids?

E. EVANS: Stuck. Yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It makes it feel like he's almost still here but just in a different way.

LAH (voice-over): Four children and their mother suspended in time, trapped in loss and bureaucratic battles with the very agency dedicated to care for the soldier's family.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I love Daddy so much that if I don't have his baby blanket, I'll get nightmares.

SGT. MICHAEL EVANS, DECEASED ARMY VETERAN: Morning, Love, got me some coffee?

LAH: Her father was Army Sergeant Michael Evans, an infantryman who deployed to Iraq twice, surviving more than two years of some of the war's worst combat, suffering traumatic brain injury from multiple IEDs. (LAUGHTER)

[14:35:03]

E. EVANS: It's not bad.

M. EVANS: It's not bad?

LAH: Once home, a full life appeared to resume, but the war never left him.

E. EVANS: He came in the house one day, he stood -- he stood right here. He just wanted to be held. And it was like his demons were standing right here in the room and I was trying to pull him back. And that was probably three days before he just snapped.

LAH: Two years ago, after a month's-long depressive crisis that strained their marriage and family, Michael Evans died by suicide.

(on camera): After Michael passed, did you reach out to the V.A.? Did you file a benefits claim?

E. EVANS: They eventually sent a letter and they decided that Michael's PTSD was not significant.

LAH (voice-over): The V.A. denied her request for death benefits, a monthly payment to family members after a service-related death.

(on camera): Positive for PTSD, positive for depression. These are the VA's --

E. EVANS: These are the VA's --

LAH: -- own tests, own doctors?

E. EVANS: Own documents. It's all PTSD. It's all his service. It's all from combat.

LAH (voice-over): A CNN Investigation found the V.A. denied crucial benefits to hundreds of families of veterans who died by suicide. We counted nearly 500 cases, but that's likely just a fraction of the total number.

The V.A. says it doesn't track how many suicide-related claims it processes. So exactly how many families have been denied remains unknown. And many veterans are reluctant to seek help.

It's up to survivors to prove their loved ones suffered from PTSD.

LINDA GOULDING, SURVIVING SPOUSE: I would not wish these last nine years on my worst enemy.

This is everything that I had given to the V.A.

LAH: Linda Goulding is a widow who was denied and appealed. Goulding submitted to the V.A. doctor's reports and a letter from her husband.

GOULDING: And it started out that it had started on this day and it will end on this day.

LAH: That day marked 40 years that Goulding's husband, James, had left Vietnam.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you want? Do you want a --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)

LAH: Even as a loving grandfather, Goulding carried the weight of his Marine Corps battalion known as "The Walking Dead." It suffered one of the highest casualty rates of the war.

On that 40-year anniversary, he threatened to end his own life. His wife called police.

GOULDING: They banged on the door. They called out his name. And when they went in, they heard a shot and then a thud.

LAH (on camera): When you went to the V.A., what did the V.A. say?

GOULDING: I had to prove that he had PTSD.

LAH (voice-over): Proving it took her nine years.

Our investigation found families like the Gouldings spent on average five-and-a-half years trying to win benefits. Many don't ever get them.

GOULDING: I want the V.A. to help the other people with more empathy, so other women would not have to do this ever, ever.

LAH: Emily Evans is in the middle of her battle with the V.A., haunted, she says, by promises not honored.

(on camera): What would you like to tell the V.A.?

E. EVANS: I would like to see V.A. take responsibility for this. I would like to see them step up.

My husband did not die in the war, but his mind did, and he deserves better. He deserved better, and he's not the only one.

LAH: The V.A. declined CNN's request for an on camera interview.

Instead, we got this statement: "V.A. is under new management," a spokesperson says, nodding at the change in administration.

And said, "The V.A. is working across the department to improve survivor programs so families can have the most supportive, convenient and seamless experience possible in their time of grief."

Kyung Lah, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KEILAR: Our thanks to Kyung for that important piece.

And if you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts or mental health matters, call or text the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988.

[14:39:56]

We'll be right back.

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BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: So right now, a Georgetown University fellow is in federal custody after being detained by Homeland Security.

In a letter obtained by CNN, the university's interim president says that Badshah Khan Suri had his visa revoked and that he'd been doing doctoral research on peace building in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The letter also states that the university was not aware of him engaging in any illegal activity, nor had they received a reason for his detention.

CNN's Tom Foreman joins us now with the details.

Tom, has the administration explained exactly why he was detained?

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The administration is not explaining a lot about any of these cases. They say a little bit.

[14:44:59]

There was this post that did say that, "Suri was a foreign exchange student at Georgetown University, actively spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting anti-Semitism on social media. Suri has close connections to a known or suspected terrorist who is a senior advisor to Hamas."

And on and on it goes. And they said that "renders him deportable." All of this is under debate as to whether or not this is actually the case. But it is what they are claiming about him.

And they're invoking this old law that they say allows them to say, well, you're damaging U.S. foreign relations, therefore, we can remove you.

SANCHEZ: A similar story to what we've seen unfold with Mahmoud Khalil that Columbia University student. What are Suri's attorneys saying?

FOREMAN: What they're saying is what a lot of people are saying who are concerned about this sort of thing.

In a statement from one of the attorneys, they said, "I will say that seeing our government abduct and jail another innocent person is beyond contemptible." And it goes on to talk about how maybe the problem is with the

government, not the scholar.

And bear in mind, Boris, the way this guy was picked up, according to the attorneys, was that he was at home with his family. A bunch of masked men showed up brandishing weapons and whisked him away. And -- and they were with immigration.

And not only did they whisk him away, but in several of these cases, what they're doing is taking these people to Louisiana for detention. So they're well over a thousand miles away, which, as you know, would complicate all of your efforts to communicate with family, with colleagues, with lawyers.

So they're one of the first efforts here in some of these legal cases is to say, let's get these people back near people who might be able to help them as they dispute these charges.

SANCHEZ: There's also the story about a French researcher that was trying to, I believe, re-enter the United States, but was denied. What can you tell us about that?

FOREMAN: In that case, what -- what seems to be the case is that officials somehow found on his phone conversations, comments about Donald Trump's foreign policy that were unfavorable. And then they said, that's enough. You cannot attend this conference in Houston.

Again, I do want to be fair to everybody here. We're not getting a lot of details. This administration is not very transparent about this. So we don't really know all the details, but we do know there are a lot of questions.

SANCHEZ: Tom Foreman, thank you so much for looking into this for us.

When we come back, the U.S. apparently dropping to its lowest rankings ever in the happiest countries to live rankings. Why we are supposedly not even in the top 20, next.

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[14:51:47]

KEILAR: Today is the International Day of Happiness. And a U.N.- sponsored report once again finds Finland is the world's happiest country for the eighth year in a row.

The U.S. going the wrong way, folks. Ranked in 24th place. It's our lowest ever position. Our best ranking was actually 13 years ago when we came in 11th place with an -- 11th place, I should say.

With us now is Dr. Wendy Walsh, the host of the "Dr. Wendy Walsh Show" on iHeartRadio, and psychology professor at Cal State University, Channel Islands.

All right, Dr. Wendy, what a bummer. Like, what are we doing wrong? DR. WENDY WALSH, HOST, "DR WENDY WALSH SHOW" ON IHEARTRADIO &

PSYCHOLOGY PROFESSOR, CAL STATE UNIVERSITY, CHANNEL ISLANDS: What are we doing wrong? Well, if we look at the example of some of the Nordic countries that tend to score very high, a couple of things are different.

One is that they have governments who put citizens' social welfare first. Right? Whereas when you have a government that tends to be more authoritarian, you score lower. Examples might be Afghanistan or Lebanon.

It's really interesting to note that, this year, Mexico jumped into the top-10 as one of the happiest countries. So it's about learning to trust and be happier with each other.

KEILAR: That is fascinating.

OK, so Finland eight years in a row. I mean, I hear what you're saying, but what is so specific about Finland that they are, you know, winning this thing eight years in a row?

WALSH: Well, it's interesting because I teach health psychology, and you might think it's a diet and exercise class, but it's really about interpersonal relationships.

And this is what the Finns do very well. They live in multigenerational housing. They have communities. They have social support. They have -- they eat their meals together.

They trust each other. There's a big mindset around trust. That's one of the things the researchers looked for. And so it's not just about income. In fact, income wasn't as important as some of these other factors.

KEILAR: That's really interesting.

OK, a tidbit that I think a lot of people should focus on in this report is that meal sharing has gone down. One in four Americans reported eating all of their meals alone the previous day. All of them. And that is a 53 percent increase from 2003.

Talk to us a little bit about that.

WALSH: So we know, as human beings, that isolation, social isolation is the worst thing for our mental health and our physical health. Look, it's the worst punishment we give somebody, right, solitary confinement.

We evolved to be tribes, to be herders who need to be together. And when we share meals, this is a way of developing a bond and reciprocity.

And so what we've been seeing in America that -- you know, the research was fabulous because it showed that even more important than getting a job after a period of unemployment or a sudden big raise, just simply sharing meals with others can boost your happiness faster. So that's something we all can do. I mean, look around at your

coworkers today. Ask yourself, who should I ask out to lunch? Who can I hang with? "Do not eat alone" is a big message from this research.

[14:55:00]

KEILAR: Does it count if you're eating, you know, at desks next to each other? I think I sort of know the answer if you're not really interacting there.

OK, so this year's report paid some special attention to acts of kindness. It found that 70 percent of the world's population did at least one

kind thing in the last month. How does that contribute to happiness?

And also, it has me thinking about how my -- one of my kids is kind of obsessed with opening doors for people right now. I think that's sort of his little act of kindness. And I think this will give me some insight into why this matters so much. Tell me.

WALSH: Well, certainly, doing something instrumental and obvious, like opening a door or assisting somebody, can give you immediate gratification.

The research is clear. Even if you're just giving money to a charity where somebody is benefiting that you don't even see, believe it or not, the giver gets a bigger boost in happiness than the receiver.

I find that fascinating that we should all wake up every day and say, where can I give? How can I give in my time, my talents, or my treasure so that I can feel better? Think of it as a selfish act.

KEILAR: That is fascinating.

Dr. Wendy Walsh, thank you so much. This is a really interesting report here and we appreciate you taking us through it.

WALSH: Thank you.

KEILAR: Coming up next hour, President Trump expected to sign an executive order aimed at dismantling the Department of Education. Stay with us.

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