The administration finalized the deal over the weekend to secure the release of Bergdahl. Criticism of Bergdahl deal mounts

The Obama administration on Monday faced a growing backlash against its deal to secure the release of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, as critics questioned the sergeant’s actions in Afghanistan, President Barack Obama’s use of executive authority to gain his release, and the implications for national security.

The escalating attacks on the deal were given new fuel by fresh reports that Bergdahl may have deserted.


“Bergdahl was a deserter, and soldiers from his own unit died trying to track him down,” Nathan Bradley Bethea, who served in Bergdahl’s battalion, wrote in a Daily Beast story. Bethea’s report said Bergdahl disappeared from his battalion in the middle of the night.

( Also on POLITICO: Obama: POW 'was never forgotten')

CNN cited a member of the soldier’s platoon who said he was “pissed off” at Bergdahl. “Bowe Bergdahl deserted during a time of war and his fellow Americans lost their lives searching for him,” the sergeant said.

On Monday, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon added that he felt the president “broke the law” under the 2014 National Defense Authorization Act by not informing Congress 30 days in advance about the release of detainees from Guantanamo Bay.

“My perception is, and I think the eyes of many, he broke the law by not informing Congress 30 days before,” McKeon said of Obama on MSNBC’s “Daily Rundown.” “You just had Ambassador Rice, she said they’ve been working on this for three years. She said Congress has been informed of this along the way. I don’t know who they were talking to. I have not been a part of this, and I’m the chairman of the committee.” McKeon was referring to National Security Adviser Susan Rice, who defended the legality of the administration’s actions on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday.

( Also on POLITICO: Rogers: 'A price' for U.S. soldiers)

McKeon said that his committee will hold hearings on the issue, saying he hopes Democrats as well as Republicans will help investigate whether the White House violated the NDAA. “This is not a partisan issue. It’s just a matter of the law and breaking the law and not informing the Congress according to the law,” he said.

On the Senate side, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) wrote Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) requesting an immediate hearing on the deal.

“While I appreciate that an American was released from captivity, this decision by the Obama administration has serious implications for our future national security,” he wrote in the letter obtained by Fox News. Graham is a member of the committee.

McCain, echoing Graham, supports a hearing on the deal.

“It’s worthy of a hearing,” McCain told reporters. “But, it’s done.”

( Also on POLITICO: Rice: 'Sacred obligation' led to swap)

While the Arizona Republican isn’t concerned with the legality of the prisoner swap, he nevertheless opposes the deal.

He said the negotiated release of Bergdahl “poses a great threat to the lives and well-being of American servicemen and women in the future.”

“I would not have made this deal. I would have done everything in my power to repatriate him and I would have done everything I possibly could. But I would not have put the lives of American servicemen at risk in the future,” McCain said, raising concerns about Bergdahl’s record in the military. “There’s some really damning things about the reaction of the military on this.”

Bill Kristol, conservative commentator and editor of The Weekly Standard, said on Monday that the new reports make the deal suspect.

( WATCH: What you didn’t know about Obama)

“I don’t think he [Obama] should have” made the deal, Kristol said on “Morning Joe.” “He may well pay a price.”

“There’s a lot of reporting that he wasn’t taken in battle, he seems to have deserted or at least gone AWOL, he may have cooperated with the enemy after they captured him, soldiers died trying to find him,” Kristol said, adding that there’s a high “degree of anger” from soldiers that served with him.

“It’s one thing to trade terrorists for a real POW, for someone who’s taken on the battlefield and fighting honorably for our country,” Kristol said. “It’s another thing to trade away five high-ranking terrorists for someone who walked away.”

The Wall Street Journal also slammed the agreement in an editorial Monday morning, saying it sets a dangerous precedent for American prisoners of war in the future and underscores the administration’s “weakness.”

“The real problem with this prisoner swap is the message it conveys about American weakness, especially in the context of Mr. Obama’s retreat from Afghanistan and elsewhere,” the editorial said. “The world’s bad actors have long perceived that the U.S. doesn’t negotiate over hostages.”

“The Taliban swap will change that perception and increase the likelihood that more Americans will be grabbed, not least in Kabul,” the Journal said later, adding that it was possible for the Taliban to demand the release of alleged 9/11 plot architect Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in future deals.

Later on Monday, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal penned an op-ed criticizing the deal. While he is pleased Bergdahl is home, “I completely disagree, however, with the manner in which the Obama administration achieved Bergdahl’s freedom,” the potential 2016 Republican presidential candidate wrote on FoxNews.com. “This is a major departure from American policy, and one that could generate disastrous consequences for our soldiers, our diplomats, and any American who travels abroad.”

House Foreign Affairs Committee member Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.) expressed similar concerns in a Facebook post Monday morning. “I am deeply concerned with the way President Obama went about releasing five of the most notorious terrorists currently in US custody,” he said.

The administration finalized the deal over the weekend to secure the release of Bergdahl, a 28-year-old who was held by the Taliban for nearly five years. In return, the U.S. freed five prisoners at Guantanamo Bay prison who have been described as senior Taliban leaders. The prisoners were sent to Qatar, where the government has pledged to keep them in the country for one year.

The most prominent of the five prisoners released is Khirullah Khairkhwa, a founding member of the Taliban and former governor of Afghanistan’s Herat province during Taliban reign. The others are Mullah Mohammad Fazl, commander of Taliban troops during the 9/11 attacks; Mullah Norullah Noori, a senior Taliban commander; Mohammad Nabi Omari, a Taliban security official; and Abdul Haq Wasiq, a top Taliban intelligence official.

White House press secretary Jay Carney on Monday defended the deal, saying the U.S. felt urgency to act because of reports that Bergdahl’s health was “deteriorating.”

It was “absolutely he right thing to do because the United States does not leave armed men and women behind in armed conflict,” the outgoing White House spokesman said.

Carney said critics who called the deal a dangerous precedent ignored the fact that the U.S. has had a “long history and precedent where we engage in exchange of prisoners during an armed conflict.”

House Foreign Affairs Committee member Gregory Meeks largely defended the administration Monday morning, saying the exchange of prisoners of war is common in wartime and that Obama has earned U.S. trust on counterterrorism measures.

“This president has not been a soft president,” the New York Democrat said. “He has gone after the bad guys harder than anybody that we’ve known. In fact, he’s been criticized for doing it so hard. So, I have an intrinsic trust that there’s some information that’s there.”

Meeks added that he anticipates lawmakers will hear from administration officials about why the White House didn’t notify Congress. The administration said “our soldier’s life was in imminent danger,” Meeks said, “and if that’s the case, the administration has to do what it has to do.”

The administration also received support from Paul Rieckhoff, the executive director of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America who has been harshly critical of the president’s handling of the VA scandal.

“There shouldn’t be conditions on going after terrorists to bring home our own,” he said on MSNBC. “We always bring back our own,” he added, saying the release was an important signal to service members that the U.S. will not “forget” about them.

But Bergdahl’s release was panned on many conservative blogs Monday. A Breitbart post said there are many “inconsistencies and suspicious aspects” of the release and that the administration has told terrorists: “Capture an American and America will do your bidding.”

And Donald Trump also expressed his frustration on Monday, saying the administration made a “terrible deal.”

“It’s a terrible deal we made, a terrible deal,” Trump told “Fox & Friends.” “Every soldier and every American is at risk now.”

The escalating criticism on Monday comes after Bergdahl news dominated the Sunday talk shows, with top Obama administration officials defending the deal, but several high-profile Republicans criticizing it.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) said the administration has “set a price” for future prisoners of war and will encourage the Taliban to capture more Americans.

And Senate Armed Services member John McCain (R-Ariz.) said: “It is disturbing that these individuals would have the ability to re-enter the fight, and they are big, high-level people, possibly responsible for the deaths of thousands,” adding that he’s “grateful” that Bergdahl was released.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Rice both said the administration did the right thing. Rice said the U.S. honored its “sacred obligation” to return Bergdahl to his family and that the deal was done “in a secure way in Qatar.”

Hagel said the deal “was essentially to save the life of Sgt. Bergdahl,” citing reports of his declining health and saying he would “stand by that decision” to make the agreement. He also said he hoped the deal could “be a new opening” to produce a longer-term pact with the Taliban. The U.S. has not held talks with the Taliban since 2012.

Kendall Breitman, Lucy McCalmont and Burgess Everett contributed to this report.