Tom Cotton on Obama’s smear artists

A Joint Subcommittee of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs held a hearing yesterday about the swap of suspected deserter Bowe Bergdahl for the Tabilban Five. The committee has posted videos of the hearing and text of the witnesses’ testimony here. C-SPAN has posted videos of the hearing here (part 1) and here (part 2). FOX News has posted a brief account of the hearing here.

As Bergdahl’s platoon mates have come forward to give their testimony regarding the circumstances of Bergdahl’s apparent desertion and the dubious rationale served up by Obama for the exchange, they have been subjected to a covert smear campaign. Among the four witnesses who testified at the hearing yesterday were Cody Full, who served with Bergdahl, and Andy Andrews, the father of deceased Second Lieutenant Darryn Andrews, who was killed in the search for Bergdahl following Bergdahl’s apparent desertion.

Rep. Tom Cotton is not amused by the exchange or by the administration’s behind-the-scenes disparagement of Bergdahl’s fellow soldiers. Having served tours in both Iraq and Afghanistan, Tom is in a good position to pass judgment on the administration’s exchange for Bergdahl as well as on the related smear campaign against Bergdahl’s fellow soldiers.

In the video below, Tom addresses the “anonymous” White House sources “who have attempted to discredit Bowe Bergdahl’s platoon mates,” as Twitchy puts it. Please check out the video below (just over a minute).

Twitchy has posted the video above along with this transcript of Tom’s concluding comment:

Finally, I want to say something to the anonymous sources in the president’s administration who are disparaging the service of Second Platoon and Blackfoot Company. Show yourself, speak in your own name, have the courage of your convictions. And if you don’t, shut up, and stand back and thank these men for their service.

They won’t shut up, they won’t stand back, but they can be called out on their disgusting behavior in defense of a bad deal. It is good to have Rep. Cotton stepping forward to do so in this matter.

Via Twitchy.

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