Posted on 06/10/2014 2:01:43 PM PDT by ghost of stonewall jackson
The buck stops with the president. Or maybe it's the secretary of Defense.
As the fallout grows over the controversial Taliban prisoner swap, White House officials are emphasizing that Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel was the one who "signed off" on the deal -- a move one Republican lawmaker suggested is an effort to shift blame.
"I hope they're not just pushing him out to be a fall guy for this," Rep. Buck McKeon, R-Calif., told Fox News.
According to a congressional source, Deputy National Security Adviser Tony Blinken refused to answer directly when asked point-blank during a briefing with House lawmakers Monday evening who made the call.
McKeon noted the White House is stressing Hagel's role, though, following intense controversy over the trade of five Taliban members held at Guantanamo Bay for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. He noted that he "didn't see Secretary Hagel" on TV when President Obama first announced the release alongside Bergdahl's parents in the Rose Garden.
Defense officials say that Hagel's comments on NBC's "Meet the Press" immediately following the release speak for themselves.
"I signed off on the decision," Hagel said in that interview. "The president made the ultimate decision."
Asked Tuesday to clarify who made the final call, White House spokesman Josh Earnest gave a multipronged response.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
The list that was floating around? Add, “Blame someone else”
Obama is pathetic.
His supporters are beyond pathetic.
Was Hagel at the Rose Garden ceremony with the mom and dad? If not, why not, if this was really his idea, and his decision?????
And why has Obama been out there defending that decision, which he said he himself made, and he himself would do again, if it was really Hagel? Why hasn’t Obama been saying that he accepted the decision of Hagel and trusted his judgement, etc. instead of telling us that he, Obama, made the decision???
What a tangled web is being woven.
So another of Obama’s “Gutsy calls” is somebody else’s fault?
Obama only found out when he saw himself and the Bergdahls in the Rose Garden on the NEWS
“Republican” in a Dem administration = first guy pushed into the gator pit.
Well, screw Hagel, frankly. He has always been a slimy guy, and very cozy with Arab terrorists.
“Republican” in a Dem administration = first guy pushed into the gator pit.
Well, screw Hagel, frankly. He has always been a slimy guy, and very cozy with Arab terrorists.
Who is waiting in the wings to take Chuck’s place?
NOT ME!
The buck don’t stop here!
Chucky did it mom!
“The buck stops here!” - Harry S Truman
“What buck? I never saw a buck. The buck never got here. Bush stole the buck.” - Barry H. Obama
Smells like another case of The Won not knowing anything about it ‘till he read it in the NY Times - Hagel did it.
IIIRC, He was in Afghanistan on June 1st...a few hours after their release. Wonder if he went to the Taliban “Office” in Qatar...the one Obama helped to set up.
Even, and perhaps especially, the RINOs should be very careful when going to work for or making direct deals with the Current Regime. Chuck Hagel was always expendable, and his life expectancy with the Current Regime very likely is measured in days, if not hours.
Kind of like the GIs who were stationed in West Berlin in the bad old days of the Cold War. If the Russians had started anything, they would have been the first casualties.
I think Obama put him there so he could get rid of him. I think I read...First SOD to be filibustered.
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