**Written by Doug Powers
I think I’ve finally figured out how the Obama administration operates. They wait to see what Susan Rice says on Sunday shows, and then try to fashion reality around her claims. This past Sunday Rice said that Bowe Bergdahl served “with honor and distinction.”
Former Veterans Affairs official Brandon Friedman, now with HUD’s public affairs office — make it so:

Here’s the thing about Bergdahl and the Jump-to-Conclusions mats: What if his platoon was long on psychopaths and short on leadership? (1/5)
— Brandon Friedman (@BFriedmanDC) June 5, 2014

That was the first of five tweets outlining a scenario that would motivate Bergdahl’s platoon-mates to “smear” him and make Bergdahl’s desertion at least partly understandable, according to Friedman, who since scrubbed his Twitter bio. Read them all here.
How has that guy not been promoted to the White House yet?
***
On the other side of this prisoner swap equation, President Obama said that of course the Taliban leaders from Gitmo could return to terrorism:

The five hardened terrorists sprung from Guantanamo Bay for suspected deserter Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl’s return could rejoin the jihad on America, the President conceded in defending his decision.
“Is there a possibility of some of them trying to return to activities that are detrimental to us? Absolutely,” Obama told a news conference in Warsaw.
“That’s been true of all the prisoners that were released from Guantanamo. There’s a certain recidivism rate that takes place.”
A top Middle Eastern official said officials in Qatar would do little to hinder the terrorists.

The possibility of the Gitmo Five rejoining the fight is of course one of the reasons Obama’s been training so hard (h/t @RedSteeze).
Update:
Buzzfeed calls this an apology from Friedman. Sounds more like a “I’m sorry I didn’t use different words to say the exact same thing” though.
**Written by Doug Powers
Twitter @ThePowersThatBe