CBS "Face the Nation" - Transcript: Guantanamo Bay Prisoner Release

Interview

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BOB SCHIEFFER: All right, well, thank you all both. And I want to go now to Arizona Senator John McCain who's on the other side of the table. Senator, thank you for meeting with us in the studio this morning. Just give me your reaction to this.

JOHN MCCAIN: I understand the great story and happiness of the Bergdahl family and friends. And we're all grateful that he has returned. I think there are legitimate questions about these individuals who have been released. And the conditions understand which they will be released. These are the hardest of the hard core.

These are the highest high-risk people.

And others that we have released have gone back into the fight. That's been documented. And it's disturbing to me that the Taliban are the ones that named the people to be released. So all I can say is that we need to more information about the conditions of where they're going to be and how. But it is disturbing that these individuals would have the ability to reenter the fight. And they are big, high-level people, possibly responsible for the deaths of thousands.

BOB SCHIEFFER: The deaths of thousands?

JOHN MCCAIN: Absolutely. One of them was a chief intelligence person who had killed a lot of Shiite Muslims. These are really the toughest of the tough.

BOB SCHIEFFER: Secretary Hagel was saying that Congress could not be notified ahead of time due to the top-secret nature of this nation. And the fact that Bergdahl was not in good health.

JOHN MCCAIN: Well, I understand that. And so, but the big issue here is what you and I just discussed. Finally, it's a little coincidence that on the day that Bergdahl is released is the day after we found out that the first American suicide bomber as part of Muslim extremist, Al Qaeda, blew himself up in Syria. Because we got out of Iraq, which we, when we could've left forces behind and now the Iraq/Syria border is a haven for these people.

And the fact is that Al Qaeda is reconstituted. The bloodiest battle, the Iraq war, was the second battle of Fallujah, the black flags of Al Qaeda now fly over Fallujah. This total evacuation, withdrawal from Afghanistan pretends to be another replay of the Iraq debacle, which is now a direct threat to the United States of America.

And I do not understand why the president didn't learn the lesson of Iraq, where we could've left forces behind.

BOB SCHIEFFER: What do you make of what David Ignatius just said? He said it is his understanding that Secretary Panetta said, "No way, no how for these kind of people to be released." But Secretary Hagel has signed off on it.

JOHN MCCAIN: Well, there was discussions that I heard way back as far back as two years ago to release these people. There was a bipartisan opposition to that. But obviously, what's done is done.

BOB SCHIEFFER: Well, do you think it's a precedent being set here? Hagel says, "It's not negotiating with terrorists, it's a prisoner exchange."

JOHN MCCAIN: I think the big issue here is what's going to happen to these five individuals. If they reenter the fight, then it is going to put American lives at risk. And none of us want that to happen, not Secretary Hagel, or anybody. But if they're able other have after a year in Qatar, to do whatever they want to do, there's no doubt they'll reenter the fight. Other ones have been released from Guantanamo have reentered the fight.

BOB SCHIEFFER: Let's talk about the Veteran's Administration and the scandal over there, which was what we had planned for this broadcast this morning until this big story happened yesterday. So Secretary Shinseki has resigned. But it seems to me there's still a lot of problems to be solved there.

JOHN MCCAIN: General Shinseki is a great man, a fine patriot who served his country and left part of himself on the field of battle. And I was reluctant to call for his resignation. But it's the fact that they've lost the confidence of the veterans. That's the key to this. And it's unbelievable that for three weeks, the president of the United States never said a word about it.

And it's not just a scheduling problem in the V.A. It is as in the words of the inspector general, a "systemic problem." And one of the keys to solving this problem, as I campaigned, if I might say, is to give the veteran the flexibility to get the care that he or she needs at the closest and most available place.

There are V.A. facilities that are unique and wonderful, traumatic brain injury, P.T.S.D., prosthesis, war wounds, and they're the best at it. But why should a veteran have to get into a van and ride three hours to get to Phoenix in order to have routine medical care taken care of? Why doesn't that veteran have a card and go to the caregiver that he or she needs and wants?

And that's the solution to this problem, this flexibility to the veteran to choose their healthcare, just like other people under other healthcare plans are able to do. And this is a situation that the president needs to call together the best people he can find. Ask General Petraeus. I'd ask Tom Coburn.

If there's anybody in Congress that knows more about healthcare, then Tom Coburn should be the next secretary of the Veteran's Administration in my view. Call them together and say, "In two weeks, I want you to tell the American people what we need to do to fix this." We can do that. Instead, the president seems to be blaming it on a scheduling problem.

BOB SCHIEFFER: Well, it seems to me that another thing that needs to be dealt with is these people who were gaming the system. Because there were actually people in this bureaucracy who were covering up the scheduling in order to qualify for performance bonuses. They were doing it to make money out of it. And should they be prosecuted?

JOHN MCCAIN: This scandal qualifies for a Justice Department investigation and it should've started some time ago. Because clearly, there are some serious allegations that laws were broken.

BOB SCHIEFFER: And you think that Senator Coburn might be a good person?

JOHN MCCAIN: I think he'd be the best, and he's going to kill me for saying that.

BOB SCHIEFFER: Senator, thank you so much for joining us today.

JOHN MCCAIN: Thank you.

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