Charges of desertion and misbehavior before the enemy that were announced Wednesday against Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl are an embarrassment to President Barack Obama, Fox News host Bill O'Reilly argued on his show Wednesday night.
"The Army's decision today is an acute embarrassment for President Obama," O'Reilly said in the opening segment of
"The O'Reilly Factor."
O'Reilly pointed to Obama's announcing the trade of Bergdahl for five Taliban leaders in May 2014. The president had the sergeant's parents at a Rose Garden ceremony "trumpeting the deal."
"Those terrorists will soon be released from supervision in Qatar, free to return to the Afghan battlefield, free to kill Americans if they can," O'Reilly said. "From the beginning, many Americans thought the deal was bad for the country, but the president and his acolytes disagreed."
O'Reilly played video of National Security Adviser Susan Rice saying Bergdahl "served the United States with honor and distinction," calling her words another "embarrassment."
Bergdahl did not serve with honor and distinction, O'Reilly said, and "instead may spend the
rest of his life in prison."
Obama has made serious mistakes in foreign policy, O'Reilly said, with the entire war on terror "going against the good guys, us, and the other anti-jihadist nations."
He praised Obama's announcement this week that troops would be left in Afghanistan longer than Obama originally said, but added, "Bowe Bergdahl is a man in crisis, and the Obama administration totally botched the whole thing."
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