The controversial swap of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl for five high-ranking Taliban terrorists may have been timed to divert attention from Obama administration scandals, says Grace-Marie Turner, president of the Galen Institute.
"Do they think we are idiots? You have to wonder, because certainly they knew that you just dig one layer down in this story, you start to find this stinks to high heaven," Turner told "The Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV.
"You have to wonder," she said Tuesday, "was this an effort to throw up yet another dust storm to try to distract people from focusing on the scandal in the VA, which was a self-created distraction from Obamacare, and from Benghazi and from the IRS scandal? This one has backfired big-time."
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Turner, whose group is a non-profit health and tax policy research organization, made her comments during a Newsmax panel discussion with Rick Ungar, co-host of the SiriusXM radio show, "Steele & Ungar."
Ungar noted the growing evidence that Bergdahl may have deserted his post after writing emails in which he spoke of his disillusionment with the Army. After his capture, six U.S. soldiers died searching for him.
"This is going to turn into one of the strangest stories that any of us have ever seen following this through to the logical conclusion,'' Ungar predicted.
"Clearly, there is more than enough evidence at this point, or so it would appear, to subject this guy to a court-martial. It seems pretty clear from what we've seen that he deserted."
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