Obama Aide Rice Defends Her Initial Praise for Bowe Bergdahl

From The Wall Street Journal:

National Security Adviser Susan Rice, once again on the defensive over comments on a Sunday talk show, tried to blunt criticism on Friday that she had embellished Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl's military record when she said last weekend he had served with "honor and distinction."

Ms. Rice, a favorite target of Republicans over the 2012 Benghazi attack, stood by her upbeat depiction of Sgt. Bergdahl, a prisoner of war in Afghanistan who was freed last week in exchange for five Taliban detainees held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. With a classified Army investigation finding that Sgt. Bergdahl voluntarily walked away from his base in Afghanistan, according to people who have seen the report, Ms. Rice has faced a backlash for her favorable depiction of his service.

"What I was referring to is the fact that this was a young man who volunteered to serve his country in uniform at a time of war. That is itself a very honorable thing," Ms. Rice told CNN on Friday, expanding on comments she made last Sunday on ABC's "This Week."

 

This is a young man whose circumstances we are still going to learn about. He is, as all Americans, innocent until proven guilty," Ms. Rice added on Friday.

 

It is a familiar spot for Ms. Rice: Two years ago, Republicans castigated her over comments she made on Sunday talk shows about the terrorist attack in Libya that killed four Americans. She had incorrectly described the attack as stemming from protests over a YouTube video.

 

Ms. Rice also spoke Friday about the Benghazi attacks, saying: "I provided the best information that the U.S. government had at the time. Parts of it turned out to be wrong.… That doesn't make me a liar. That makes me a public servant trying to say what we knew at the time.''