White House officials tried unsuccessfully to make Americans believe Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl served with honor and distinction because they think the public is gullible, says National Journal writer Ron Fournier.
"They have a fundamental problem at this White House … of thinking that just because we say something, the American people are going to believe it. We can pretend something is true that is not," Fournier said Wednesday when sitting on the panel of Fox News Channel's
"Special Report."
"They really thought when they said he served with honor and distinction, that would end the story," he said.
Bergdahl was charged with desertion and misbehavior before the enemy on Wednesday after a public backlash against his being traded for five Taliban leaders held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. President Barack Obama hosted Bergdahl's parents at a Rose Garden ceremony in May 2014 when the trade was announced.
Fournier said the White House thought that portraying Bergdahl as a hero would help Obama's sagging popularity as Democrats faced a tough off-year election.
"What they have forgotten is that the media landscape has changed," he said. "The way people get their information has changed, and you just can't B.S. the American people like they could in the 1990s. And they were caught trying to B.S. the American public."
Fournier said the principle of "leave no man behind" is "noble," but always has been tempered with practicality.
"We don't negotiate with terrorists, for example. We don't risk 100 lives to save one," he said. "There is always a balance that the commander in chief and the people beneath him have to make on fulfilling that principle as far as you possibly can."
The problem for Obama, he said, is trust.
"As a commander in chief, if we can't trust what he says about something like this, then how can we get behind the rationale for going after the next service member who is captured?" he said.
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