It comes with some surprise transfers that the went ahead with no consultation, following the law. Gwen we explore the curious Army Sergeant bowe bergdahl. The moreitics of straightforward kind as a six tea partyor and his challenger battle to a tie. We sit here tonight leading a incumbent. But our fight is not over. About the does it say senate and the senator . 70 years after dday. The week, ed okeefe of the Washington Post. David sanger of the New York Times and molly ball of the atlantic. Award winning reporting and analysis, covering history as it happens. Live from our nations capital, is Washington Week with gwen ifill. Corporate funding is provided by it is one of the most Amazing Things we build and it doesnt even fly. It in classrooms and exhibit hallsion mentoring tomorrows innovators. We build it raising roofs, preserving habitats and serving americans veterans. Every day, thousands of boeing volunteers help make their communities the best they can be. Building Something Better for all of us. Additional Corporate Funding for Washington Week is prudential. Brigham and womens hospital. Additional funding is provided annenberg foundation, the corporation for public broadcasting and by stationsions to pbs from from viewers like you. Thank you. Live from, washington, moderator again again. Negotiations to free underwaydahl had been for years. Bergdahl had walked away from desert. Est in the after five years in captivity he was the last american soldier in americas longest war. And to get him back, there would prisoner swap. This is what could not have been known when the president walked garden with berg it that thes Parents Exchange would turn into a huge is point for democrats and republicans. I remain convinced that the a precedent that will encourage enemies of the to target american men and women in uniform. We leave no soldiers behind. Is a lot to be answered here behavior of peculiar between the family, this soldier and his actions. Gwen add to the fact that the president did not notify congress and a top advisor described him as a hero and those who served with him did not and a big messy story. Did the white house see is coming . Not with the ferocity that it arrived with. Were three big issues as you sorted out this incredibly complex week. The first is was it worth going through all this effort to rescue somebody who has been suspected of walking away from his post. While that was the subject of think thee, i chairman of the joint chiefs Martin Dempsey put that away. He said in the United States we bring back everyone and then it was that they ended up leaving their post and getting captured. Week that of the issue was going away. The two others werent. One of them was could the notified have congress . Certainly he had time that because he had struck a deal the qatar government three happened forthis how they would deal with the fromtaliban being released guantanamo. He had at least 21 days to go do this. Security concerns about doing it but also they reaction ine congress would be because the issue had come up in 2011 and 2012. Gwen did congress see any of this coming . Senior law makers had been of the idea of swapping the five taliban detainees for dahl as early as the fall of 2011. Members of the house and senate around that time. Caused so much concern that they classified off letters to the administration asking for more questions. Of 2012nd of january they had to hold another briefing to discuss this. More recently it was in the pages of the Washington Post and elsewhere floated the idea of a for one swap. For any law maker who says we coming. Dea this was a junior freshman law maker certainly you didnt know. Harry reed and Speaker Boehner through the Armed Services committee. Gwen if congress knew about it time topresident had work as you suggest, david, all that is left to be believed is house didnt care if congress knew . The white house cared because opposition was in pretty bipartisan as you could tell from the introthat we had before. Head of the Senate Intelligence committee, dianne some ofn who fired off those letters that ed was talking about. And that whole debate centered whether or not it was worth releasing five taliban including their former defense chief and their former intelligence chief who blood on their hands. Not necessarily american blood manyertainly the blood of shea killed and whether this was really a swap or constituted negotiating with terrorists. That is all a question of how you view the end of a war. You know, tony blinken the security advisor said this is what we do at end of war, we exchange prisoners. Theother way is that taliban were never an organized force and you cant negotiate with them without negotiating with terrorists. And some of this is about guantanamo. Absolutely. The president suggesting you wittle away at thea number of prisoners as part of the war in afghanistan. He began to require the country be thinking about that. We are only a little more than a year away from ending this war going to require potentially emptying out bay. Anamo and if not sending them overseas finding a way to detain them in states for which this is decent support on capitol hill. Gwen if the white house knew this was going to be controversial and there were objections already in place to floated that had been highway to the rose garden say why do the rose guarden ceremony and wrapping themselves in the flag with the parents . Could they have done it got and ay and different reaction . There is several things they differently. Ne they could have gone to the gang of eight, eight senior members frequently get briefed on covert activities and they dont leak and they could they signed this deal with qatar the president has to make fast decisions here because it is a difficult thing negotiating with the taliban and if the deal leaks out the whole away but we want you to know we are on the verge of ting this. And then they could have said we consulted. It doesnt require that they take congress advice. Diffusedhat would have a lot. Im not sure how well they thought through the ceremony in because once we saw some of the postings of bowes father where he talked some about releasing all of the from faceboo Guantanamo Bay i think there was concerns about whether or not the president wanted to seem to be embracing that. The president s answer is look, parents who have gone through the worst possible thing. Their son has been in captivity years. E welcomee politics and the sonning. Sonback. Gwen wednesday night they realized they had to brief congress. What did they tell them and did work . It was just the senate because the house was out this week. They showed a proof of Life Administration had received in december of last year or january. December or january. Demonstrated why it was the president felt he needed to act now. Severaleing that, senators, mark kirk walked out and said i get it, i can why he felt emotionally compelled to do this guy back. T gwen an illinois republican. But joe manchin a democrat of said yeah, i saw the video but still doesnt explain why he felt the need to taliban detainees for the one guy. Outhe white house then came and arranged to do briefings for were presumably cleaned up versions of a classified briefing. Reasons that they offered was that there was splits in the taliban and they peoplencerned that the who were literally holding ofgdahl who included members the Hakani Network which is something of a split off group the taliban may not have signed off on the whole trade aboutat when they heard it if it leaked out they might simply kill bergdahl right there rather than turn him back. Showing how fractured congressional response was you ask senators who went to the briefing was the concern about the potential threats against dahl if this leaked out discussed in the briefing. No. Said and others said absolutely. So you had total confusion even when they received the information from the administration about what was actually said in the room. Part partisanse of dis agreement . People were even disagreeing about the information they were give. And the reason to show the his condition, correct . Right. About showing the shape that he was in and the reason in the administration had to be freed. The guy who gave the best and hetion is mark kirk said you could hear it in his voice. It was very shaky. Described it toee reporters. Maybe 1920o is years old that is not the voice you expect to hear from an army soldier. He was in duress and because of that and all of other information the white house had at the time they said told they believed they had to act. The whiteidweek house realized they had to defend what they had done. In brussels asas part of this european trip and this is what he had to say. Prisoner of war deterioratedhad and we were deeply concerned about and we saw an opportunity it. We seized and i make no apologies for that. Gwen the president s clearly not david. Down, and neither is the National Security advisor susan rice who that bergdahl was a hero early in the week and repeated still believed him because of his service to be a hero. Dont know if she used the word again. The white house decided they go but to pusho forward on this one. Thats right. We dont know how good his health was. Know that the white house believed rightly or wrongly that this was probably to getast opportunity him back. And the reason for that is we are leaving afghanistan. And at that moment your ability to have the intelligence in thet where he is, to have leverage to conduct a negotiation. Gwen and dont we think the willing to keel deal because of that same thing . Been. Ld well have takes use of the next question which is when susan rice said he with honor and was she talking about . She said today he signed up for service. I had some people in the administration say to me since if they had been advising her on thatw to speak sunday show or subsequently, it would have been to say he served with distinction by signing up and we have to determine how he came to leave his post. Gwen after the fact. Thats right. Gwen one of the things im curious about that members of been complaining about and is one of the unanswered wees, the five detain wees, how dangerous are they and how worried are we that they fight usn around and again . That is one of the things, the one bit of recourse that putting pressure on the white house to okay, if you now think that they are good go if not home at least to qatar for a year, declassify all of the on them andyou have show us why you think that is. And whether or not that happens matter pause now they have because now they have a to continue sowing doubts about this with House Republicans coming back. The which fits into narrative about obamas Foreign Policy and whether he is weak and takingful enough the right actions. I dont think there is any veryion this is a thoughtful president. You see him think hard and talk a lot about why he mixes the decisions that makes the decisions that he does. One of the concerns is whether not he is sufficient in pushing a concept of an america that remains strong. And that is a difficult thing to do in a case like afghanistan are leaving in an inconclusive war where we have not achieved almost any of the goals that george bush lid out and havent achieved any of the goals that president obama talked about in the 2008 campaign and then did the surge convened a group whose name was so wonderful because it told you everything you needed about the war, it was called the afghan good enough committee and that committee cut back what the objectives were. And now this looks like it fits narrative lets get our guys and get out. One quick question for you issue ast became an you talked to law makers this week. Of how theany sense opinions of military leaders have changed over the course of this . We know from the conversations they had privately classified setting back in 2011 military leaders concerned about this and this week they are saying no, no big deal here. Among them were the former chairman of the joint chiefs who opposed this as had other military leaders even when the release was in the service of a bigger goal trying to get the taliban to talk a deal. And Hillary Clinton opposed she was secretary of state. Talk about that later. Gwen now back to straightforward politics and why tea party no matter what you may have heard is not dead. Jonie ernst. Who battleddaniel photo finish. O a cochran faces a runoff against mcdaniel before the end of the month. How did it come to this for someone who has been in congress and senate and delivered so much for his home state over the years, molly . That is it. Animating principle of the tea party, they took a lot of time republican incumbents by surprise because they felt gang ofs this Republican Office holders who had been in washington too long and gotten comfortable there and going to cocktail parties and making compromises inh democrats and livin living washington and being out of touch with the home states and not being sufficiently thatrvative on the issues mattered and there is a real culture clash between the republicans who felt that it was get as much of that federal money as possible back to their home states, to work importantup on committees and be significant serious policy makers in that was what it meant to be a senator. And then there is the new guard no, what it means to be a senator is vote no as often evilssible and stop legislation from being passed by president obama and by democrats even to shut down the government to, to use every weapon at your disposal to make sure agenda is pressed. Otherwise, all you are doing is basically in the bad legislation. I covered dick lost inrace that he indiana a couple of years ago, hadt the time, everyone known him and he had been their wereor as long as they alive and they liked him a lot but still in the end at any time vote for him. The same is a narrow playing out scenario playing out . He is seeking a a 7th term in senate. He didnt have hardly any money bank account and last december after he had drawn tea Party Opponent he said off handedly i will run. His campaign has not been particularly aggressive and he is sort of going around the hasnt spent a lot of time in since moving to washington sort of trying to thisd people look at all spending i brought home. Look at all this money i have gotten for mississippi. About 3 fromts the federal government for every taxes. They pay in gwen tone tea. Deaf. Hethe party has shifted and seems unwilling or unable to speak the new language of the republican base. Go ahead, david. What is going to ask going to happen in the runoff. Some sense that the people that voted the first time might not enthusiasm for a second time . Runoffs are very unpredictable. Chris mcdaniel supporters are committed and enthusiastic and going to come out and vote no matter what. A lot of Thad Cochrans supporters may be soft, moderate, establishment the firsts who in round felt complacent and that lose he is possibly such an institution in mississippi. Maybe they will be more come out. To maybe democrats and independents, they are trying to to come out by scaring them about Chris Mcdaniel and how very conservative he is and the inflammatory things and his supporters have said and done. A scenario where the supporters who couldnt be come outthe first time the second time. Runoffs are usually very low imagine thatsy to the more committed side is the one that wins. Real quick, an assessment of gop primaries to date . That. 20 seconds for the exception that proves the rule. Havene contest where we seen a knock down dragout fight between the republican partyishment and the tea in pure form. Other than this, a lot more ambiguous cases and cases where the party hask of been coopted by the establishment and more harmony overall. Gwen we will be watching that and talking about another race in iowa. We have to leave you a few minutes early this week because youred you to support local pbs station because they in turn support us. For the liveline Washington Week webcast extra peek inside the early leaks on Hillary Clintons new book. And as we debate the politics of wartime sacrifice in afghanistan we the 20,000tribute to americans who gave their lives in the allied invasion of dtay, 70 years years agoay, 70 today. These men waged war so that we might know peace. Sacrificed so that we fight be free. Fought in hopes of a day we would no longer need to fight. Greatful to them. [taps being played] makes youe world of thesetop and think men. Lose hope, stop and think of these men. Gwen 9,387 americans including recipients of honor are buried today at omaha beach. We are honored once again to be able to thank them for their youice and we will see again here next week on Washington Week. Good night. Captioned by the National Captioning Institute www. Ncicap. Org Corporate Funding for Washington Week is provided by asked people a question. How much money t to you think yu when you retire and then gave each person a ribbon to show how many years that last. Might i was trying to pull it a little further. Got me to 70 years old. To rethink. Hard to imagine how much we lead for a retirement that could more. 0 years or maybe we need to approach things differently if we want to be retirement. Longer Corporate Funding for Washington Week is provided by boeing. Brigham and womens hospital. Additional funding is provided annenberg foundation, the corporation for public and bysting contributions to pbs stations from viewers like you. Thank you. Next, on kqed newsroom state city college. City college of San Francisco fights to maintain its accreditation and stay open. Plus, a visit with the family behind the anderson Art Collection at stanford university. The painting does have something to say to each and every one of us, depending upon us. Looking at art