House GOPer: White House Thinks You’re With Them Or ‘For Thermonuclear War’

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., right, accompanied by the committee's ranking member Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger, D-Md., inform reporters about proposed changes to the National Secu... House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., right, accompanied by the committee's ranking member Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger, D-Md., inform reporters about proposed changes to the National Security Agency’s program of sweeping up and storing vast amounts of data on Americans' phone calls, Tuesday, March 25, 2014, during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington. Details of the government's secret phone records collection program were disclosed last year by former NSA systems analyst Edward Snowden. Privacy advocates were outraged to learn that the government was holding onto phone records of innocent Americans for up to five years. Obama promised to make changes to the program in an effort to win back public support. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) MORE LESS
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Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, on Sunday slammed the Obama administration’s decision to negotiate for the release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl without first consulting Congress.

Rogers argued that the White House had other options besides releasing five Guantanamo Bay detainees in exchange for the American prisoner of war, and that the administration acted without notifying Congress because they knew there would be dissenters.

“There are other options. And this was what so angered for those of us who have followed this for years,” he said on ABC’s “This Week.” “The administration has this theory that you’re either with them or you’re for thermonuclear war and there’s not in between. That’s just wrong.”

“And so the reason they avoided Congress, this isn’t about we didn’t get invited to the party, so we shouldn’t have our feelings hurt. It is because we can empower all of the people — diplomats — who disagreed with this decision, intelligence folks who disagreed with this decision, military folks,” he continued.

Rogers said that the prisoner exchange will put Americans abroad at greater risk.

“This is a huge regional and geopolitical problem for the United States moving forward. Hostages are now currency in this war on terror. That’s always dangerous for both diplomats, aide workers, soldiers on the battlefield,” he said.

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