CNN "Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees" - Transcript: Bowe Bergdahl

Interview

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COOPER: That's clear. The White House view. Others disagree on that and whether President Obama skirted a law, broke a law requiring Congress be notified 30 days before releasing Guantanamo detainees.

Late today, Democratic Senator Diane Feinstein said it would have been better if the Intelligence Committee which she chairs had gotten advance warning of the swap, others go a lot further including her California Republican counterpart on the House Armed Services Committee, Congressman Buck McKeon who joins us now.

Mr. Chairman, thanks for being with us. So did President Obama break the law?

REP. HOWARD "BUCK" MCKEON (R), CHAIRMAN, ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE: Yes. COOPER: Broke the law clearly because he didn't give 30-day notice?

MCKEON: Last year on our National Defense Authorization Act that passed out of our committee 59-2, passed on the floor about 3-1, conference with the Senate, finally passed by both bodies, signed by the president, stated specifically that before any detainees would be released from Guantanamo the administration would give Congress 30 days notice.

COOPER: The administration cites a so-called signing statement that it issued when Congress created this law and the 30-day notification requirement regarding Taliban prisoner releases. The signing statement they believe creates a waiver for the president when conditions are exceptional, the same types of signing statements used by George W. Bush frequently. Previous presidents of both parties. Is this situation different?

MCKEON: All I know is we passed the law, he signed it. Now if he has some wiggle room because he says the bill that I'm signing I don't really believe, then I don't know why he signs it. There's another way to treat that, it's called veto. He didn't do that. He signed it.

You know, this president has a history of doing this. Deciding which laws he wants to enforce, which ones he wants to follow. I don't think the Constitution gives him that kind of leeway but that's kind of the way he's functioned now for almost six years. In fact, his attorney general, the lead law enforcement officer in his administration, has told the attorney generals from the states that they don't have to enforce all the laws. They can kind of pick and choose.

I've never seen anything like this. It's really over the top as far as I'm concerned.

COOPER: Do you believe there should have been negotiations for the return of Bowe Bergdahl? I mean, there have been exceptions to the whole idea of not negotiating with bad actors, Ronald Reagan, you know, as we talked about before sent missiles in Iran in exchange for Americans captured, George W. Bush 2010 released a militant Shia cleric in exchange for British private contractor.

Is there -- I mean, is there a place for these kinds of negotiations?

MCKEON: Let me just say I'm glad that Sergeant Bergdahl is going to be reunited with his family. We don't like to see any of our men held as hostages or as prisoners. It's the way this was done in contradiction to the law. Now I heard Secretary Rice, Ambassador Rice, saying congressmen about this we've been talking about this for three years. They have told us and we had briefings that they were negotiating with the Taliban for a future peace.

I thought that all fell apart. But several years ago they did bring that up and tell us they were working towards that end, and I never heard them say -- I've never been briefed to my recollection about Sergeant Bergdahl. So I just think they've gone over the top. COOPER: Do you --

MCKEON: The problem is what happens now is that the rest of our people in uniform or civilians around the world are put in a more dangerous spot than they were a few days ago.

COOPER: And we were talking about that before the break with our other guests. Do you buy the other administration argument that Sergeant Bergdahl was -- had a health reason and that they couldn't wait, that there was a time -- it was a time sensitive matter. They had to move when they did because of his health?

MCKEON: I don't know. It's interesting that it's -- that it's gone on for five years and all of a sudden when they were able to make a breakthrough they made a big point about we didn't negotiate with terrorists, but we negotiated with the Qataris and they acted as a broker.

You know, I think this is really a parsing of words. If you're -- if a terrorist is holding somebody, and you worked out a deal to get somebody, now -- you know, when we buy a home you might have a realtor in between there but who are you really negotiating with?

I don't think that's the important thing. I think the important things is that they have now released five hardcore Taliban and what I'm concerned about is what are they doing to keep them from getting back in the fight? That's what I want to hear. We're going to hold hearings on this. We're going to look into this because, you know, we're going to leave -- the president made a big speech a week or two ago about we're going to leave 9800 troops behind, NATO will leave about another 5,000, it's almost 15,000 men and women in uniform that we're going to leave there that are now put in more jeopardy than they were in before.

And each of those people have husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, children, and they all care about them, too, and I don't want to see them have to go through kidnapping or --

COOPER: Right.

MCKEON: Any kind of being held.

COOPER: Right. Of course, the question is how long is it going to be before these five return to the fight, especially once they're released by Qatar?

Chairman McKeon, it's good to have you on, sir. Thank you very much. I appreciate it.

MCKEON: Thank you. Thanks for having me.

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