Sorry Sen. McCain, but your change in stance on the Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl prisoner swap sure as hell sounds like a flip flop to me. CNN's Jake Tapper called him out for the obvious contradiction on his show this Thursday, but he was way too soft on him.
From Tapper's blog: McCain: I would have rejected Bergdahl deal:
Republican Sen. John McCain, himself a former prisoner of war in Vietnam, says his "heart goes out" to Bowe Bergdahl, but slammed the deal that swapped five Guantanamo Bay detainees for the captured Army sergeant.
"I wanted him home. I didn't want to risk the lives, and don't want to risk the lives of Americans," said McCain. "I would never agree with that."
Asked if he would have rejected the deal, even if that meant Bergdahl would still be held prisoner in Afghanistan or Pakistan, McCain says he would have.
"I’m afraid that that’s the case, because our first obligation is not to put the lives of American fighting men and women at risk by having these (five detainees) return to the fight," said McCain.
The Arizona senator has come under fire this week for seemingly flip flopping on his support of securing Bergdahl's release. CNN's Anderson Cooper asked McCain whether he would support a prisoner exchange back in February.
"Would you oppose the idea of some form of negotiations or prisoner exchange? I know back in 2012 you called the idea of even negotiating with the Taliban bizarre, highly questionable," Cooper said.
"Well, at that time the proposal was that they would release Taliban, some of them really hard-core, particularly five really hard-core Taliban leaders, as a confidence- building measure. Now this idea is for an exchange of prisoners for our American fighting man," McCain replied. "I would be inclined to support such a thing depending on a lot of the details."
"And the details are outrageous," McCain said today.
"The details are unacceptable. And for anyone to accuse me, therefore, of saying I’d support any prisoner swap under any circumstances is lying," he added.
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