Pat Caddell, Doug Schoen, and John LeBoutillier joined Harris Faulkner on Fox News’ Political Insiders, Sunday evening, to talk about the controversial Bergdahl swap.
Faulkner asked the group if the story was evolving in a way that was favorable to the Regime.
Schoen answered, “I’m seeing more and more questions being asked. For example, was money paid to the Haqqani network? …How much restrictions are on the five detainees released in Qatar?”
He also questioned John Kerry’s strange comment Sunday, that suggested we have the ability to drone these militants once they’re back on the battlefield. “We need to find out what he was talking about – and what he meant,” Schoen noted.
Harris wondered if any other administration would have done differently.
LeBoutillier said, “maybe, but as time goes on, you can’t believe anything anybody in this administration says about it.”
He made the point that the administration – Hagel specifically – have denied that any of Bergdahl’s troop mates died while looking for him.” Faulkner played a clip of Hagel weakly trying to make that assertion.
“We’ve seen the parents of dead soldiers who died (were killed) looking for Bergdahl on the TV shows this past week, complaining about this thing,” LeBoutillier exclaimed.
Caddell said, “I think the poll numbers are changing to their detriment.”
“we have these five Taliban top commanders one of whom engaged in genocide, living in luxury. I want to know how many Americans died to capture those Taliban,” (that were just set free) Caddell thundered.
In 2011, and 2012, “everyone refused to make this trade,” Caddell noted. “It was a White House operation. They wanted the VA off the front page – they got something much worse.”
Schoen added, “the deal itself was very very problematic, but as John suggested, I think the credibility of this administration in terms of its overall foreign policy – what they say and what they do are completely at variance, and we saw this week an absence of coherence between the US and the Europeans. Ultimately, this is a president losing credibility, and losing stature.”
LeBoutillier repeated the conventional wisdom that the swap was made to get the VA scandal off the front pages, but they botched the rollout of the news horribly, starting with the Rose Garden announcement with Mr. and Mrs. Bergdahl.
“Can you imagine!” he exclaimed, “having the father of this prisoner standing with the president tweeting with the Taliban leadership, promising to work to get all of the prisoners out of Guantanamo – he’s standing with the Commander in Chief whose soldiers are getting killed by the Taliban! How can this be?!”
Caddell piped up, “let’s talk about incompetence for a moment”, referring to the Rose garden presser with the family. “That moment may go down in history as a “jump the shark moment” for the administration. All of a sudden, everything it says and does is exposed. It goes to far!”
In an aside, Caddell also slammed the president for “standing there tie-less.”
They’ve had a whole office of people dealing with the “eccentric ” Bergdahls for years – “no one said to the president – they seem to come off as a little eccentric, maybe we shouldn’t have this going on – maybe there are going to be some problems?I know from my experience, you would try to do that,” Caddell explained.
The easy answer is – Obama’s White House is filled with youthful liberal hipsters and ideologues who don’t find anything eccentric about the Bergdahls and cluck their tongues at us for “judging” the elder Bergdahl for his questionable appearance and behavior.
Caddell calls them “a team of clowns who took over from a very qualified team in foreign policy.” The Obami call it “smart power.”
The partisan divide is as wide as it’s ever been.
Linked by Doug Ross and iOWNTHEWORLD, thanks!
Nice Deb 