On her MSNBC show on Thursday, host Andrea Mitchell bemoaned the Obama administration’s “unforced error” in sending Iran $400 million at the exact same time American hostages were released from Tehran in January. She was puzzled by the decision: “...they never explained that this other money was going – the $400 million. It’s unrelated to the nuclear deal. Why do it on the same day?”

Washington Post political correspondent Anne Gearan was equally baffled: “It's a mystery why, exactly. They didn't need to do it that day, there was nothing in particular forcing their hand that we know of to do it that day.” She avoided the possibility of the White House paying the money as ransom for the hostages.

In fact, Gearan couldn’t understand why the administration would want to keep the highly suspicious cash transfer a secret: “But also, why hide the ball, you know, at all?...There’s nothing – you know, there’s nothing really objectively wrong with the way this deal was structured financially....the way it was structured is financially just fine.”

Mitchell fretted that “the impression of the simultaneity gives Iran the ability to say, ‘Well, we saw it as paying ransom.’”

Washington Post national political correspondent Karen Tumulty chimed in: “...this was also a concern to the Justice Department. That the timing of this was just too, too coincidental....it gave Iran a talking point, which I think that more than anything is the real problem here for the administration.” She lamented: “Politically, the optics are horrible.”

While Mitchell and her guests wrung their hands over the “impression” and “optics” of the obvious ransom payment, on FNC’s Special Report Wednesday night, columnist Charles Krauthammer cut right to the substance of the scandal:

...of course the Justice Department objected; it was illegal. They had to print the money here, ship it over to Switzerland, turn it into Swiss francs and Euros and ship it over to Iran. If a private company had done this, this is called money laundering. The CEO would be in jail right now.

Here is a transcript of the August 4 panel discussion on Andrea Mitchell Reports: