Vice President Joe Biden says he advised President Barack Obama against launching a mission to kill Osama bin Laden.
Obama ultimately sided with then-CIA Director Leon Panetta and launched the SEALs raid that ended in the death of the al-Qaida leader and 9/11 mastermind, the New York Daily News reported.
During a House Democratic retreat in Maryland Friday, Biden recalled the deliberations over whether to carry out the raid, according to the Daily News.
In describing the deliberations, he recalled: "It got to me and [Obama] said, 'Joe, what do you think?'"
"I said . . . 'Mr. President, my suggestion is, don't go. We have to do two more things to see if he's there,'" Biden said.
Biden remembered that Panetta was the sole adviser with a straight response.
"Leon said go," Biden recalled.
Obama gave the go on Operation Neptune Spear as he was boarding a helicopter at the White House the next morning.
"He turned to [national security adviser] Tom Donilon and said 'Go,'" Biden recalled.
White House press secretary Jay Carney told Politico on Monday, "The broader point that I think the president has made is that this was not a sure thing."
"In the end, as with a lot of decisions, your advisers come together and have compelling arguments on either side and you have to make the call."
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