White House Tell Congress Bergdahl Deal Was Hagel's Fault

 

President "Blame Guy" has struck again. On Monday, the White House gave a classified briefing to the House Armed Services committee about the Bowe Begdahl for five senior Taliban terrorists deal (also known as the worst trade since the NY Mets traded a young Nolan Ryan for an over-the-hill Jim Fregosi). During the briefing committee members were told that it was Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel not President Obama who pulled the trigger on the deal.

“They indicated [it was] Secretary Hagel [who made the final call],” House Armed Services Chairman Buck McKeon, R-California, told reporters following the briefing Monday evening. “It was the president of the United States that came out [in the Rose Garden] with the Bergdahls and took all the credit and now that there’s been a little pushback he’s moving away from it and it’s Secretary Hagel?”

It is not sure whether this news is another changing of the official Bergdahl story, or the typical Obama placing the blame elsewhere.

Officials also told Congress that 80 to 90 people within the administration knew of its plans to go forward with the controversial swap, exacerbating tensions between the White House and members of Congress.

“They made it clear that there were 80 to 90 people who knew ahead of time about the Bergdahl release,” Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minnesota, a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, told reporters. “There was a sense of anger that members of Congress didn’t know about this. Obviously, if there is secure information — members of Congress knew about the capture of Osama bin Laden — and yet 80 to 90 staff in the White House knew about this.”

While Bachmann says administration officials insist no members of Congress were informed before the exchange, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has repeatedly said he found out about impending plans from the White House the day before the exchange happened.

Yes I know it's shocking to learn that Harry Reid may be lying (again).
 
The White House has been both tone-deaf and arrogant on this Bergdahl deal. They knew Bowe Bergdahl had been accused of being a deserter, and they knew Congress would be angry about not being in the loop. They figured however the only argument would be over the national security implications of the five terrorists who released, not over Bergdahl's desertion. 

Obama thought the press and his fellow Democrats would bail him out the way they did with fast and furious, Benghazi, the IRS scandal and all the other scandals in the administration until the VA scandal. Perhaps the VA scandal was the straw that broke the camel's back and the press and Democrats in Congress are finally doing their jobs---six years late.