Former Romney Spokesman is Now Pimping Anti-Bergdahl Interviews

The release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl has quickly escalated from a shining example of America’s commitment to its military POWs into a relentless political attack on President Obama, with Sgt. Bergdahl as proxy. Fueling the attacks on Bergdahl are accounts, by his former comrades, of the circumstances surrounding his capture. Separate and apart from the merits of those accounts, the fact that former Romney spokesman Richard Grenell has been using his PR firm to book interviews for these men places them on terrain they don’t seem to want to be on.

Several news outlets, including the New York Times, have reported on Grenell’s efforts to book interviews for members of Bergdahl’s unit, and Grenell has weirdly pushed back, attempting to lay the effort off on his partner, who once voted for John Kerry. The fact is, though, that Grenell has been simultaneously attacking President Obama, while loudly agitating for more media coverage of Bergdahl’s former unit, so it seems silly to deny that he has succeeded. Bookers have also reported direct contact with Grenell to set up these interviews.

Grenell’s actions have coincided with an escalating backlash against the release of Bergdahl, based on the suggestion that he was a deserter, or worse, and which has politiciansbackpedaling on well-wishes they expressed early on. Despite the White House’s consistent posture of distancing itself from the particulars of Bergdahl’s service, the right has made Bergdahl’s capture a proxy with which to attack Obama, including, now, raising funds off of the issue.

Alongside these attacks, there’s a mainstream media narrative emerging that the Obama administration was “blindsided” by the allegations surrounding Bergdahl’s capture. On The Today Show this morning, NBC News’ Chuck Todd caused a stir when he quoted an unnamed administration official saying that Bergdahl was being “swiftboated,” but also concluding that the White House was completely unprepared for questions about the circumstances of Bergdahl’s capture…READ MORE

By: Tommy Christopher

Tommy Christopher is The Daily Banter's White House Correspondent and Political Analyst. He's been a political reporter and liberal commentator since 2007, and has covered the White House since the beginning of the Obama administration, first for PoliticsDaily, and then for Mediaite. Christopher is a frequent guest on a variety of television, radio, and online programs, and was the villain in the documentaries The Audacity of Democracy and Hating Breitbart. He's also That Guy Who Live-Tweeted His Own Heart Attack, and the only person to have ever received public apologies from both Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck.