Ayotte: Bergdahl Swap ‘Was a Bad Deal To Start With’

“This was a bad deal to start with of course. These were five top commanders in the Taliban, leaders of the Taliban, and I think many of us talked about the danger of these individuals re-engaging at the time, and now we have one of those already communicating with the Taliban …

So here’s where we are. I think this was a bad deal and the worries that I have is that as I understand this agreement with Qatar -- already we have one that is re-engaging -- but after May, there are no conditions and these individuals can return to Afghanistan. Bear in mind, because they were such top level officials they can leave from anywhere.

This is really important and I’ve introduced legislation because I’m worried about the administration’s overall pattern of releasing people from Guantanamo and releasing them with very few conditions to assure that they won’t re-engage in terrorism ...

The Taliban have killed many of our men and women in uniform. Let's not forget what the Taliban did to woman in the soccer stadiums, murdering them. This is a very, very bad group and I think that Josh Earnest is missing the point and White House is as well.”