Posted on 06/06/2014 9:57:48 AM PDT by Second Amendment First
Susan Rice explains her praise of Bowe Bergdahl By: Jonathan Topaz June 6, 2014 11:50 AM EDT
Susan Rice isn’t backing down from her controversial comments that Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl served with “honor and distinction” in Afghanistan.
“I realize there has been a lot of discussion and controversy around this,” the National Security Adviser said during an interview Friday with CNN’s Jim Acosta at the D-Day anniversary in Normandy, France. “What I was referring to is the fact that this was a young man who volunteered to serve his country in uniform at a time of war. That in itself is a very honorable thing.”
“But ‘honor and distinction?’” Acosta said, cutting in.
“Jim, really. I mean, this is a young man whose circumstances we are still going to learn about,” she replied.
(WATCH: Harry Reid on Bergdahl swap)
The senior adviser to President Barack Obama added that the public is unfairly castigating Bergdahl without knowing the full story behind his service and she asked that people reserve judgment until all the facts are out.
“He is, as all Americans, innocent until proven guilty. He is now being tried in the court of public opinion after having gone through an enormously traumatic five years of captivity,” she said.
Rice also echoed Obama’s comments Thursday in Europe, when the president noted that Bergdahl deserved to be acknowledged for volunteering to serve in Afghanistan.
“Let’s remember: This is a young man who volunteered to serve his country,” Rice said. “He was taken as a prisoner of war. He suffered in captivity. He’s now trying to begin the process of recovery. Let’s let that happen.”
When asked whether there was proof that Bergdahl was a deserter, Rice said the White House had not drawn any conclusions to that effect, saying that the military and administration still needed to hear from Bergdahl himself.
Rice has once again found herself the target of criticism from conservatives after her appearance last Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” when she defended the Obama administration’s deal to recover Bergdahl. “He served the United States with honor and distinction,” she said Sunday, when asked about the soldier’s service. “And we’ll have the opportunity eventually to learn what has transpired in the past years.”
Several Republican lawmakers have slammed Rice for the comments in light of reports that Bergdahl might have been a deserter and likely walked off from his platoon voluntarily. Some reports have said that as many as six soldiers might have died while searching for him.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) called for Rice’s resignation earlier this week, saying, “I can’t believe anything she tells me.” Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said that she should “stay off the Sunday talk shows,” an allusion also to Rice’s appearance on the Sunday talk shows in 2012 following the attacks in Benghazi, Libya. On September 16, 2012, then-U.N. Ambassador Rice appeared on several talk shows to say that the attacks in Benghazi that killed four Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens, were a spontaneous response to a YouTube video. Months later, after fierce backlash from Republicans over her comments, she withdrew her consideration to become Obama’s secretary of State.
Acosta brought up conservatives’ criticism in the interview Friday, saying she had become “a GOP lightning rod.”
“I’m up front with the American people and I always do my best on behalf of the country,” she said in response to his question about whether she has been too loose with her facts on the Sunday shows.
“In the case of Bowe Bergdahl,” she added, “for me to condemn him without any opportunity for him to have the chance to tell his side of the story, without any due process that we accord any American, that would be inherently unfair.”
On Benghazi, she reiterated that she “provided the best information that the U.S. government had at the time,” while conceding that “parts of it turned out to be wrong.”
“That doesn’t make me a liar,” Rice said.
© 2014 POLITICO LLC
rice is an ass.
Cute.
“He is, as all Americans, innocent until proven guilty. He is now being tried in the court of public opinion after having gone through an enormously traumatic five years of captivity,” she said.
If the public needs to wait for facts before condemning him, the government needs to wait for facts before praising him.
"[...] He is, as all Americans, innocent until proven guilty."
Wait. What? You're charging him now? So Bowe Bergdahl *is* facing a Courts-martial? That's news.
Otherwise, if he's not being charged under the UCMJ, we cannot speculate? So he's innocent and will remain so because we'll never hear the truth therefore cannot ever know otherwise?
What's Susan Rice mean here.
“He is, as all Americans, innocent until proven guilty.”
No, presumed innocent until proven guilty.
The only legitimate explanation Rice could have offered was...that’s what obama told me to say!
"Innocent until proven guilty" applies only in a court of law.
Public opinion can look at the evidence and judge him any way they damn well please.
As if both haven't already! She must think we're all complete idiots.
The fact that we haven't heard from him, sitting in his room in Germany, leads me to believe that the Administration has found out he's chock full of uncomfortable opinions and facts.
He's probably spending ten hours a day with lawyers and PR people. If all else fails, they'll have announce that he's really a woman trapped in a man's body.
Test the staff for fecal poisoning!
Heaven help us, we’re back to what the definition of “is” is and by next week the admin will be spouting “what difference does it make”.
Or
“we thought we could get away with it”
I’d like to hear her convoluted explaination why a hero ships his uniform home right before he runs off to join the enemy.
And even after. 'The "racist" jury got it wrong': found innocent, but STILL deemed guilty and a murderer by the Libs.
Also, even though he's having his head beaten into the sidewalk, with a hulk sitting on his prostrate body, it was 'the stand your ground' law that allowed him to 'viciously shoot an unarmed teenager' instead of retreat.
This woman is either the biggest liar in the history of mankind, or the stupidest woman ever. She seems to have such low self-esteem that she will let herself be used by Obama/Jarrett, et al. like she’s their b!tch. Pretty disgraceful stuff all around. All the more so because this relates to the national security of the US, not the personal lives and fortunes of Obama/Jarrett/Rice.
She’s a terrible person with no soul.
Um, dry-cleaning?
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