President Barack Obama doubled down Thursday on his handling of the Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl prisoner swap, saying he makes 'no apologies' for releasing five Taliban terrorists in exchange for the safe return of an accused U.S. Army deserter. 'I make absolutely no apologies for making sure we get back a young man to his parents,' he said in Brussels during a joint press conference with British Prime Minister David Cameron, 'and that the American people understand that this is somebody’s child and that we don’t condition whether or not we make the effort to try to get them back.' 'We had a prisoner of war whose health had deteriorated, and we were deeply concerned about [him],' Obama told reporters about Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. 'And we saw an opportunity and we seized it. And I make no apologies for that.'
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Obama appeared in Brussels alongside British Prime Minister David Cameron during a G7 meeting in Brussels
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He insisted that 'we had a prisoner of war whose health had deteriorated,' despite a fit-looking Bergdahl who appeared in a Taliban video during Saturday's hostage hand-over
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Administration officials reportedly told U.S. senators Wednesday that they weer kept in the dark because the Taliban threatened to kill Bergdahl if a prison-swap plan was leaked to the public
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But Congress was advised in 2011 and 2012 of two separate plans to make a similar deal, and nothing was leaked despite unanimous opposition
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Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Thursday that giving Congress 30 days' notice, as federal law requires, 'would have seriously imperiled us ever getting him out'
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Hagel said the decision to swap five Taliban leaders for Bergdahl was 'unanimous' inside the West Wing of the White House
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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was told in advance, but he called it 'a big deal over nothing. ... What difference does it make?'
The president also defended his decision in @placeholder to appear publicly on Saturday with Bergdahl's parents in a press conference that has become an embarrassing feature of the deepening controversy.