ITB - Matthews Trashes White House Suggestion Soldiers ‘Swift Boating’ Bergdahl

[bsteadman]

Matthews Trashes White House Suggestion Soldiers ‘Swift Boating’ Bergdahl

Mediaite
Josh Feldman
6/4/2014

Excerpt:

If you’ve been watching MSNBC and thinking they’ve been far too soft on the White House over Bowe Bergdahl, pay attention to Chris Matthews. He has been unreservedly critical of the White House, and today he told Chuck Todd that it’s beyond absurd for White House aides to try the “swift boat” defense to discredit the testimony of the soldiers who served with Bergdahl when he reportedly deserted his post.

Matthews cried, “Wait a minute! The swift boating of John Kerry was a dishonest PR campaign!” And to Matthews, it’s ridiculous to say the same of Bergdahl’s fellow soldiers telling media outlets what they know about him, especially when it’s a lot of different people, from people who served alongside him to people who served above him, making these allegations.

Matthews continued, “Where’s the dishonesty in the portrayal of Bergdahl so far? I haven’t seen it. What’s been misconstrued about him so far?” Chuck Todd explained the White House just thinks there’s been such a “one-sided version of events” and people should wait to hear what Bergdahl has to say.

View the complete article, including video, at:

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/matthews-...ting-bergdahl/

[bsteadman]

White House Aides: Bergdahl Criticism Is Proxy for GOP’s Obama Hatred

Mediaite
Josh Feldman
6/4/2014

Excerpt:

The White House is not taking the Bowe Bergdahl criticism well. Reports suggest they expected some criticism for releasing five Gitmo detainees, but not over the returned soldier himself. And after Chuck Todd said the White House views the attacks as a “swift boating,” there’s a POLITICO report out making their position clear: Bergdahl criticism is yet another way for the right to irrationally attack the president.

To be sure, there have been some notable instances of hypocrisy on the right on Bergdahl. John McCain was for the deal to free Bergdahl months ago, but then after Obama did it, he changed his mind. And if you’ve been on Twitter today, you’ve probably noticed some of the retweeting of how before this week, conservatives were bashing Obama for not getting Bergdahl and then after Bergdahl was released they bashed Obama for doing it.

That being said, when plenty of soldiers who served with Bergdahl have been universally negative in their assessment of his character, it’s hard to ignore the issue there. However, the White House sees something cynical going on with all the criticism.

All this, Obama aides say, is in their minds a proxy for the hatred toward the president.

The new approach: Frame the criticism as another example of Republicans complaining about something just because Obama was the one to do it.

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View the complete article at:

http://www.mediaite.com/online/white...-obama-hatred/