WASHINGTON -- Republicans and Democrats who initially praised the release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl after his five years in captivity quickly scrubbed their welcoming tweets amid questions about whether the U.S. Army soldier was a deserter and an outcry over the exchange of five Taliban officials for his freedom.
On the defensive, Democrats hammered Republican lawmakers with their own words from just a few weeks ago pleading with the Obama administration to do all it could to return Bergdahl home to his family.
The swap stands as a political flashpoint in Congress Capitol Hill that shows no sign of abating, with Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel certain to face tough questions Wednesday at a House Armed Services Committee hearing. Closed-door sessions pitting lawmakers against Obama administration officials also are planned next week.
The Bergdahl case offers none of the clarity of a celebratory homecoming for a freed military captive that rallies Americans of all political persuasions. In its place are the murky circumstances of Bergdahl's June 2009 departure from his outpost and President Barack Obama's move to send five enemy combatants to Qatar after they spent more than a decade in the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, prison.
The Washington backdrop is highly partisan, with an ongoing investigation into the deadly 2012 attack in Benghazi, Libya, congressional elections in less than five months and Republicans certain that a roughed-up Obama is critical to their political success.
Caution is clearly the watchword for some politicians in advance of primaries and elections.
Rep. Jim Renacci of Ohio and Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi, both Republicans, deleted tweets that had expressed joy over Bergdahl's release, as did Iowa Republican Senate candidate Joni Ernst. Democratic Rep. Stephen Lynch of Massachusetts did the same, according to the website Politwoops of the Sunlight Foundation, which keeps track of deleted tweets.
Republicans have pounded the administration for exchanging Bergdahl for the five Taliban commanders, warning that they will return to the fight against the United States, something an intelligence official acknowledged is likely to lawmakers this week. Democrats quickly accused the Republicans of doing an about-face on their pleas for Bergdahl's release and made clear the military's support for the swap will be a major element of their pushback.
"You put on the uniform of this country, we're going to do everything to get you," Sen. Carl Levin, a Democrat and chairman of the Armed Services Committee, told reporters this week. "Read the Republican statements. Read the resolutions they introduced about trying to get Bergdahl back. ... What happened to that? I think even (Sen. John) McCain was on television saying that he was open to the possibility of a swap a couple of months ago."
In a February interview with CNN, McCain said he would support a swap of the five Taliban commanders for Bergdahl contingent on the details. Within hours of word of the exchange this past weekend, McCain criticized the deal as a mistake that would put American lives in danger.
McCain's office insisted that there was no contradiction and faulted the White House, saying that as it struggled to defend the deal, it was discrediting its critics.
