Last night Obama administration officials told Congress that Hagel made the ultimate decision on the Bergdahl trade:
Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel – not President Obama – executed the administration’s final call to proceed with the prisoner exchange of five ranking Taliban detainees for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, administration officials told Congress today in a classified briefing today.
“They indicated [it was] Secretary Hagel [who made the final call],” House Armed Services Chairman Buck McKeon, R-California, told reporters following the briefing Monday evening. “It was the president of the United States that came out [in the Rose Garden] with the Bergdahls and took all the credit and now that there’s been a little pushback he’s moving away from it and it’s Secretary Hagel?”
But that’s not what Hagel told MSNBC on Meet The Press last week. He indicated clearly that the president made the ultimate call on the Bergdahl trade:
“We found an opportunity. We took that opportunity. I’ll stand by that decision. I signed off on the decision. The president made the ultimate decision. We did spend time looking at this. As to Guantanamo, the president has made very clear he wants to close Guantanamo.”
(h/t: GWP)