Video & Multimedia
Related: About this forum‘we didn’t know that they were going to Swift Boat Bergdahl’
NBCs Chuck Todd told the Today show Wednesday (at the 5-minute mark in the video above) that White House aides were caught flat-footed by the reaction to the prisoner swap in which the U.S. released five high-level Guantanamo Bay detainees in exchange for Bergdahl. Todd said the administration anticipated criticism over the release of the Gitmo detainees because the status of Guantanamo Bay is a contentious issue, but it never foresaw the controversy over Bergdahl.
Ive had a few aides describe it to me as we didnt know that they were going to Swift Boat Bergdahl, Todd said, referring to the campaign to discredit then-presidential candidate John Kerrys Vietnam service in 2004. And Matt, of course, thats a reference to that political fight back in 2004 over John Kerrys military service which became so controversial in that campaign. So theres some fighting words there.
How could the administration not have seen the criticism coming, given previous reports that accused Bergdahl of deserting the Army when he left his post in Afghanistan in 2009 and was subsequently captured?
Because there were so many Republicans on Capitol Hill that were urging the Defense Department to do whatever it took to get Sgt. Bergdahl, Todd said. You had op-eds by Republican senators, including one in New Hampshire. You had John McCain, three or four months ago, saying he would be open to the idea of some sort of exchange to free Sgt. Bergdahl. The initial euphoria in that first 12 hours surrounding the president with the parents of Sgt. Bergdahl. [The administration] really assumed thered be a rally-around-the-flag moment, not just for the country, but on Capitol Hill.
http://www.ibtimes.com/we-didnt-know-they-were-going-swift-boat-bergdahl-obama-aides-caught-flat-footed-video-1594338
onecaliberal
(32,861 posts)There is anything they can do that republicans are going to support. I can think of at least ten things off the top of my head that republicans supported, including this release until the moment President Obama supported it too.
dballance
(5,756 posts)Like someone else here posted I wish Obama would come out in strong favor of oxygen and breathing so the GOP would begin to hold its breath and pass out.
Really, it has all the hallmarks of something the GOP would oppose. Proven science and something that must be sustained for human life. You know, like climate change science.
blkmusclmachine
(16,149 posts)blkmusclmachine
(16,149 posts)onecaliberal
(32,861 posts)TwilightGardener
(46,416 posts)They got soldiers to do their very ugly work, and everyone knows that soldiers are unimpeachable...unless Obama gets them home from POW captivity.
Iliyah
(25,111 posts)wandy
(3,539 posts)At some point in time some decision had to be made about Sgt. Bergdahl.
Had President Obama done nothing the screams of weak, un-American, 'Muslim lover and so forth and so on would have been deafening.
Having done the right thing, bring the guy home, well.........
I'd like to say thats history but I think the right wing will be yammering about this at least until November.
I wonder. When the Teapublicans start howling Benghazi and Bergdahl at the same time will there be a beat frequency as when tuning a guitar?
No mater how the GOP profits from this one, the loons are sure out of tune this time.