Some Democrats sought to defend the White House handling of the Bergdahl incident. House GOP: '80 to 90' told of Bergdahl before us

The Obama administration had its first chance to convince House lawmakers it made the right call to trade five Taliban detainees for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.

It didn’t work.


House Republicans came out of a more than hourlong classified briefing by top national security officials on Monday complaining they’d learned nothing new about the incident that hasn’t already been disclosed in the news media.

( Also on POLITICO: Obama: Why I couldn't tell Congress)

GOP lawmakers, in particular, were upset that an estimated 80 to 90 executive branch officials in the Pentagon, White House and the intelligence agencies, but no members of Congress, were informed beforehand, including the chairs of the House and Senate intelligence panels.

“It strikes me as unfortunate that they could have 80 to 90 people in the administration and not be able to trust a single Republican or Democrat in the House or the Senate,” said Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.).

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has publicly stated that he was informed the day before the Bergdahl exchange took place, but administration officials now claim that was not the case.

( QUIZ: How well do you know Robert Bergdahl?)

The conflicting public viewpoints are rare between the administration and its chief partner on Capitol Hill.

After ABC News correspondent Jonathan Karl tweeted on June 3 that a senior administration official said Reid was told of the swap on Saturday, Reid spokesman Adam Jentleson tweeted back: “This is mildly awkward but someone at the WH must be confused …”

Jentleson added: “We were alerted earlier in the week that a significant notification was imminent & learned on Fri that Bergdahl op was going fwd.”

( Also on POLITICO: Feinstein: No threat to Bergdahl)

But it appears Reid was the only lawmaker who knew of the controversial trade ahead of time.

Former House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Peter King (R-N.Y.) said the administration briefers offered few details on who specifically in the Obama administration knew about the swap beforehand but said the officials were in logistical roles.

“They weren’t precise, but the number they gave was 80 to 90, and they said they would get back to us. The implication to me was that those 80 to 90 all knew more than anybody in the Congress knew,” he said.

King said the officials were likely from the State and Defense departments, the National Security Council and the White House.

Rank-and-file Republicans were exasperated by what they see as more stonewalling by the Obama administration as the White House tries to ride out yet another furor.

“They [administration officials] made abundantly clear from the stage that we received no classified information,” said Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), a longtime critic of President Barack Obama who also serves on the House Intelligence Committee. “I asked them why in the world they didn’t turn this into a press conference.”

The members — who had to remove all their electronic devices before entering a secure room in the basement of the Capitol — were shown a so-called proof of life video of Bergdahl from January made by his Taliban captors to prove to U.S. officials that he was still alive, according to several lawmakers at the briefing. Bergdahl reportedly told American military officials that he was held in a cage in total darkness for weeks at a time, according to The New York Times.

While expressing sympathy for Bergdahl and his family — and still professing to adhere to the code of “leaving no one behind” — Republican lawmakers blasted the swap as improper and possibly illegal, since Obama was supposed to consult with Congress 30 days before making such a move. Some administration officials have privately claimed that if word of the U.S.-Taliban talks leaked, Bergdahl’s life would have been in jeopardy.

Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) — a major in the Air National Guard who has served in Afghanistan and Iraq — said people asked about assurances that the Taliban detainees couldn’t return to the battlefield and the briefers skipped over the question.

Some Democrats sought to defend the White House handling of the Bergdahl incident, saying they understood why the administration wouldn’t share info with Capitol Hill about such a sensitive matter.

These Democrats also criticized some of the statements made about Bergdahl, who was captured in June 2009 in still unclear circumstances.

“I wouldn’t tell 435 people a secret either,” said Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.).

“We leave no soldier behind,” added Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.). “I have been completely mystified and frankly disgusted there has been a demonization of the soldier.”

Yet rank-and-file Republicans were largely adamant that Obama made a poor agreement with the Taliban, one that could endanger other U.S. forces.

“The Taliban leaders who have been released should have never been released,” said Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.). “It’s a bad outcome for a decision that this president just made. I’m not the president of the United States but I know one thing — before a decision like this would be made, I would be required to confer with the Congress. I would have conferred with Congress instead of thumbing my nose at the law.”

The White House dispatched five top deputies to Capitol Hill to discuss the Bergdahl swap during the bipartisan classified briefing Monday evening.

The briefers included Tony Blinken, a deputy national security adviser; Ambassador James Dobbins, U.S. special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan; Robert Work, a deputy secretaryof defense; Adm. James Winnefeld, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and Robert Cardillo, deputy director of national intelligence.

Dozens of lawmakers attended the briefing, with tough questions coming from both sides of the aisle, members told reporters afterward.

The Bergdahl briefing kicks off what could be a tough week for Obama on Capitol Hill. The House will continue to dig into the Department of Veterans Affairs “secret waiting list” scandal, and the House Foreign Affairs Committee will begin its own hearings on Iran’s nuclear program.

The White House did not discuss the Bergdahl incident with either Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) or House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) over the weekend, according to Hill sources.

Lawmakers are seeking broad assurances from the White House that the five prisoners released in the deal will not be allowed to become active members of the Taliban. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) said on Sunday he was “absolutely convinced” that some of the prisoners will be allowed to rejoin the Taliban, and administration officials warned senators last week that they could not definitively say how the detainees will act in the future.

Marie Harf, the State Department’s deputy spokeswoman, insisted during an MSNBC interview on Monday that lawmakers had long been aware of the basic outlines of the potential Bergdahl swap, a position that conflicts with what Boehner, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and other lawmakers have stated publicly. Only Reid was given a significant heads-up about the trade.

“When it comes to Bergdahl … the architecture of this swap had been briefed and quite frankly, had been discussed publicly,” Harf told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell.

When Mitchell noted the congressional briefings that Harf was referring to took place in late 2011 and early 2012, Harf claimed further briefings had taken place in 2013. However, Boehner and other House Republicans insist there have been no discussions about the Bergdahl case since January 2012.

“Look, we were aware of different points of view on this,” Harf said.

Harf also said that the Obama administration has done a better job than the George W. Bush administration in making sure detainees repatriated from the Guantánamo Bay detention facility don’t return to the battlefield.

Burgess Everett contributed to this report.