Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the five Taliban commanders who were released in exchange for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl "are not a threat to the United States" during her NBC interview shown Wednesday morning on Today.
Correspondent Cynthia McFadden stated "an awful lot of people" would say the country was less safe with the release of these five. Intelligence officers predicted four of them will again wage war with the U.S. at the first opportunity, and a new poll reveals more Americans oppose the trade than support it.
Also, The Daily Beast reported Clinton was skeptical of the deal in 2012 and pushed for steeper conditions for the release of the prisoners, but she still said this time around the U.S. was safe from them.
"These five guys are not a threat to the United States," Clinton said. "They are a threat to the safety and security of Afghanistan and Pakistan. It's up to those two countries to make the decision once and for all that these are threats to them."
Full exchange:
CYNTHIA MCFADDEN: Clinton writes in her book, the U.S. was involved in negotiations with the Taliban while she was Secretary of State, and even then, getting Bowe Bergdahl back was part of the equation. I think an awful lot of people think that we're less safe today than we were a week ago because these five guys are out.
HILLARY CLINTON: These five guys are not a threat to the United States. They are a threat to the safety and security of Afghanistan and Pakistan. It's up to those two countries to make the decision once and for all that these are threats to them. So I think we may be kind of missing the bigger picture here. We want to get an American home, whether they fell off the ship because they were drunk or they were pushed or they jumped, we try to rescue everybody.