While many in the media have been refreshingly critical of the Obama Administration in the aftermath of the release of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl in exchange for five Guantanamo Bay prisoners, it was only a matter of time before they figured out a way to defend the mess. During a recent radio interview, CBS News’ Bob Schieffer attempted to shield President Obama from any blame by questioning whether he was “fully and properly briefed on this.”
“I got up this morning and really thought: Are we going to hear a press conference where [the President] says, ‘I just found out about this in the news. I did not know all of that, but I'm going to get to the bottom of it. I'm just as outraged as everyone else is,’” Glenn said on radio this morning.
“I heard Bob Schieffer on radio this morning,” Stu added. “They said, ‘This has been a big controversy. What's the deal?’ And Bob Schieffer said, ‘It's just hard to believe. I think what we have to look at here was the President properly briefed on this matter.’”
Below is the audio of Schieffer’s comments:
SCHIEFFER: This whole question, this whole situation, I mean, the more you get into it, the more you just have to wonder: Was the President fully and properly briefed on this?
“Let's just say that's true: The President wasn't properly briefed. How many times does he do things where he hasn't been properly briefed before you start to say, ‘There's a real issue with this President,’” Glenn asked. “You can't go through six years and always say, ‘The president didn't know’… before you start to say, ‘Why doesn't the president know?’ That's just as bad, Bob, as ‘the president didn't know.’”
“Might even be worse,” Pat added.
SCHIEFFER: …For me to believe they would have gone about this in the way they did, had they known all of the facts about what was happening, you know --
"Can you even get your head around the madness here that we all know the facts around it, but the president doesn't know the facts,” Pat asked. “He said he finds about all these things on the news, just like we do. Well, we found out about it on the news. Weren't you watching that specific night? Or the night after?”
“Or the Rolling Stone article from 2012 that explained all of this,” Stu added.
SCHIEFFER: It’s not as if it was something that was unknown. There has been stories written about this situation. It seemed to be well-known among a lot of people. And then, you know, when the national security advisor comes out on national television and says [Bergdahl] served honorably and all that, you just wonder: Did they have all the facts when they decided to do this?
“Oh, my God,” Glenn said exasperatedly.
“He's broadcasted for 173 years… yet he still cuts [President Obama] the benefit of the doubt the whole time,” Pat concluded. “He buys into the fact he didn't know, after he tells us how stupid it is to believe he didn't know.”