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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...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Colleville-sur-Mer, FRANCE (CNN) -- President Barack Obama's national security adviser said Friday that her full-throated praise of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl was appropriate given the former Taliban prisoner's willingness to go to war for his country -- despite questions about whether or not he deserted his Army colleagues. Susan Rice, who on Sunday said Bergdahl served the United States with "honor and distinction," told CNN in an interview that she was speaking about the fact the Idaho native enlisted and went to Afghanistan in the service of his country. "I realize there has been lots of discussion and controversy around...

Susan Rice, United States National Security Advisor under the Obama administration, said that Bowe Bergdahl 'served the United States with honor and distinction.' Sounds like praise to me. But Chuck Hagel, who said very recently that Americans should not pre-judge Bowe Bergdahl, seems to take one line with - I guess "regular" Americans - and another with Susan Rice. Hmmm... Should Hagel and Rice both say that Bowe Bergdahl should be neither judged nor praised until all the facts are in? Funny how some WH aides can accuse Bergdahl's fellow soldiers of 'swift boating,' but won't tell people to not...

Fox News reporter James Rosen claimed intelligence sources have told him not only that Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl willingly collaborated with the Taliban, but that his involvement with the terrorist group may be “as serious as you can imagine.” Rosen spoke with Bill O’Reilly Wednesday night about his ongoing conversations with intelligence and Pentagon officials regarding both old and new investigations into Bergdahl’s likely desertion and possibly treasonous activities. “My reporting has shown that the intelligence community also undertook a separate [from the Army] investigation of Sgt. Bergdahl,” Rosen explained, “both his final period of active duty that culminated in...

Wednesday on NewsMax TV, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told host Steve Malzberg that Susan Rice needs to go. "I can't believe anything she tells me". Graham said. He pointed to both Rice's Benghazi Sunday show appearances when she blamed a YouTube video for the attack and last Sunday's appearance claiming U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl "served with honor and distinction." "One of two things, she is completely detached from the realty situation and is literally making things up that sounds good or she's manipulating the information for political reasons. Either way should she be the National Security Advisor?" he said.

Peters said this is evidence of a cultural divide between the Obama administration and those who serve in the military. “When you really listen to Susan Rice and Obama, I mean they think that desertion is kind of like skipping class.” He said being a deserter is the “second gravest sin” in the military, right behind turning your weapon on your fellow soldiers. Furious, Peters told Megyn, “I am sick of hearing people, even on Fox, instant experts who never served in their military, saying well we always went after our deserters.” Throughout U.S. history, Peters said deserters were rescued,...

In response to The White House doubles its bet on some bad cards: For no other reason other than morbid curiosity, I'd like to know who wrote the talking points for Susan Rice's appearances on the Sunday talk shows, yesterday. It's not like she had any more credibility to lose, but Rice told some whoppers, yesterday, possibly as Allahpundit notes at Hot Air, in a calculated attempt to set a false narrative, as "most voters will pay attention to this story for 48 hours after Bergdahl’s release and then tune out." Even as the truth was gushing out about the...

Deputy national security advisor Tony Blinken struggled to cover for his boss Susan Rice on Tuesday, backtracking from her contention that Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl “served with honor and distinction” in the face of tough questions from NBC reporter Andrea Mitchell. Mitchell confronted Blinken over Rice’s Sunday claim that Bergdahl “served with honor and distinction” — an assertion almost immediately disproven by scores of Bergdahl’s comrades and official Pentagon reports, which show the soldier abandoned his post and may have been seeking to join the Taliban. “Why did Susan Rice say he served with honor and distinction?” she asked. “It...

Susan Rice: Bergdahl Served With 'Honor and Distinction' BY DANIEL HALPER President Obama's national security adviser, Susan Rice, said on ABC that Bowe Bergdahl "served the United States with honor and distinction." Certainly anybody who's been held in those conditions, in captivity for five years, has paid an extraordinary price. But that is really not the point. The point is that he's back,” Rice told ABC host George Stephanopoulos when asked whether Bergdahl was a deserter and whether he'd face punishment. “He is going to be safely reunited with his family. He served the United States with honor and distinction....

U.S. National Security Adviser Susan Rice pushed back on Sunday against GOP claims that the administration negotiated with terrorists by transferring five Taliban prisoners in Guantanamo Bay to Qatar in exchange for the release of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl on Saturday. "I wouldn't put it that way," Rice said on CNN's "State of the Union" when asked if the exchange means that U.S. officials can no longer say they don't negotiate with terrorists. "Why didn't you notify Congress?" Crowley asked, referencing the law that requires the president to alert Congress in 30 days before transferring any prisoners from Guantanamo Bay....

With her memoir, Hard Choices set to be released in the coming weeks, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her publishing company have provided an excerpt in which she claims President Obama’s actions during the Bin Laden raid were “as crisp and courageous a display of leadership” that she had ever seen. Here are 7 reasons that Obama’s leadership during the raid was neither crisp or courageous. 1) Obama Canceled the Mission to Kill Bin Laden Three Times Clinton writes about one of the strongest examples of decision-making under pressure: “Perhaps the most famous example from my four years...

The world waits for Hillary Clinton’s new book, “Hard Choices,” on June 10th. I know I have it all queued up on amazon.com. But Clinton’s hardest choice may start at home: will she give her ghost writer a credit this time? I wrote about a year ago that Edward “Ted” Widmer, a long time Hillary associate, was actually writing “Hard Choices.” Widmer, 51, is a Harvard graduate who wrote for the Harvard Lampoon. He has a long association with Brown University, where he was the Director of the John Carter Brown Library.At least that’s where used to be. Widmer now...

snip In the limited excerpts published Friday from Clinton’s Benghazi chapter, the former secretary of State continued to defend the administration from what she termed a “political slugfest.” Specifically, she defended the flawed explanation -- used by then-U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice five days after the attack -- that an obscure anti-Islam video fueled a protest gone awry in Benghazi. "There were scores of attackers that night, almost certainly with differing motives," Clinton wrote, according to Politico. "It is inaccurate to state that every single one of them was influenced by this hateful video.It is equally inaccurate to state that none...

U.S. National Security Adviser Susan Rice avoided questions on Sunday about whether Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who was released by the Taliban in exchange for five detainees on Saturday, deserted the Army. ABC News "This Week" host George Stephanopolous asked Rice whether such allegations would be "investigated." "If it is found that he did, will he be disciplined or has he already paid the price?" he asked. "Certainly, anybody who has been held in those conditions in captivity for five years has paid an extraordinary price, but that is really not the point," Rice said. "The point is he's back. He's...

As she prepares to answer questions about the Benghazi attacks of 2012, Hillary Clinton has hired former Obama aide Tommy Vietor to help with the roll out of her new book. Earlier this month, Vietor, a former Obama administration national security spokesman, appeared on Fox News to defend the administration’s response to the attacks and famously said to anchor Bret Baier: “Dude, this was like two years ago.” Here is the transcript from that exchange: BAIER: Did you also change ‘attacks’ to ‘demonstrations’ in the talking points? VIETOR: Maybe. I don’t really remember. BAIER: You don’t remember? VIETOR: Dude, this...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Hillary Clinton may not be much at administering the State Department, but she’s certainly a pro when it comes to expressing outrage at her own persecution. For the woman who is supposedly the world’s most powerful feminist, her sense of victimhood remains surprisingly strong. That’s never been more true than in her new book, Hard Choices, which points out that she – not the four men who died in Benghazi, Libya, on the night of September 11, 2012 – is the victim. The Clinton camp reportedly leaked the 34-page Benghazi chapter of Hillary’s latest tome to favored outlet Politico. The...

“It is inaccurate to state that every single one of them was influenced by this hateful video." This statement is part of Hillary's 36 page "fog of war" chapter on Benghazi in her forthcoming memoir, a chapter obtained at least in part by Politico's Maggie Haberman, and it appears to be indicative of how she filled those 36 pages without answering any of the crucial questions about the events of that night and the following day. This line refers to the killers. And this line is of course a straw man, easily recognized after the president's straw man Woodstock at...

On Wednesday, Democrats deigned to join Republicans on the House Select Committee investigating Benghazi, primarily to protect Hillary Clinton’s reputation in particular, and the Obama administration’s in general. Toward that end they will likely do what they always do whenever their party is threatened: denigrate the investigation as it unfolds and obstruct it as much as possible. Thus, it was completely unsurprising that even as House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) appointed five colleagues to the panel she dismissed the need for it. “The Republican obsession with Benghazi has not been about the victims, the families or the country,” she...

Today as I returned from Detroit, I had a moment that I truly felt was God sent, as I don’t believe in coincidences. It happened on one of my flights, and it was two hours I will never forget. I was seated beside someone who personally knew one of the men who was there on the roof in Benghazi. This person was excited to share with me the “ground truth” of what happened September 11, 2012. My seat mate drew schematics to orient me to the “time and spacing” and the direction of the attack. I learned about the repeated...

Top White House officials have reportedly been holding private meetings with lawmakers this week to boost support for the president’s foreign policy strategy, although the outreach effort appears to have left some lawmakers confused and upset. Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) described a meeting with White House chief of staff Denis McDonough and National Security Adviser Susan Rice earlier this week as “one of the most bizarre I've attended on Foreign Relations on foreign policy in our country.” “I know several of us were involved in a very bizarre discussion last night. This continues a very bizarre discussion,” Corker added, according...