OVERNIGHT DEFENSE: White House defending Bergdahl swap

by Kristina Wong and Martin Matishak - 03/26/15 7:30 PM ET

THE TOPLINE: The White House on Thursday defended its controversial prisoner exchange for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, one day after Army officials charged him with desertion.

“The commander in chief will not allow a member of the United States armed forces to be left behind,” press secretary Josh Earnest said during an interview with CNN.

{mosads}”It was an important message for this president to deliver to the American people, but also to people all around the world, that the United States and their commander in chief stands squarely behind our men and women in uniform and with the commitment we have made to not leave them behind,” Earnest added.

Obama released five high-ranking Taliban fighters last year from the Guantánamo Bay prison in Cuba in exchange for Bergdahl, who went missing from his base in 2009 while serving in Afghanistan.

The State Department on Wednesday also defended the prisoner swap.

Obama celebrated Bergdahl’s release during a Rose Garden ceremony last June with his parents. The president later said he would make “absolutely no apologies” for exchanging the Taliban fighters for the last U.S. prisoner of war in Afghanistan.

On Thursday, Earnest would not comment on the desertion charges levied against Bergdahl, saying that he did not want to say anything to interfere with the ongoing military justice process.

Republicans, though, have seized on the charges, and charged that Obama paid too high a price for Bergdahl’s freedom.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, a likely GOP presidential contender, called the swap “heartbreaking” in an interview Thursday.

“My first reaction is to the people that lost their lives trying to get him back, and their families that didn’t get the same attention from this administration and from this president,” Bush told Fox News Radio’s “Kilmeade & Friends.”

“It’s hard to think about the blood and treasure of our country being lost in any circumstance but to try to bring back someone back who turns out to be a deserter is just heartbreaking.”

PENTAGON CHIEF SLAMS GOP BUDGET: Defense Secretary Ash Carter on Thursday slammed a GOP budget plan that would keep federal budget caps in place, but boost defense spending through a wartime funding account.

“Current proposals to shoehorn [the Pentagon’s] base budget funds into our contingency accounts would fail to solve the problem, while also undermining basic principles of accountability and responsible, long-term planning,” Carter said Thursday at the State Department.

He also criticized the budget for cutting funds for other departments, including State and Homeland Security.

“I also want to be clear that, as Secretary of Defense I cannot – and will not – be indifferent to cuts threatening Secretary [of State] Kerry’s budget – your budget – here at State,” he said.

“Or to Secretary Lew’s budget at Treasury. Or to Secretary Johnson’s budget at Homeland Security. I cannot be indifferent to the vital national security responsibilities across our government – just as I cannot be indifferent to my own at DoD,” he said.

The House passed its budget on Wednesday that keeps the defense budget at $523 billion but raise wartime spending levels to more than $90 billion. The Senate is expected to pass its budget early Friday morning.

The president’s plan would be roughly equal that amount, but would lift the budget caps and spend $561 on the defense budget, with $51 billion in wartime spending. That would give the Pentagon more flexibility to invest in multi-year programs, while war funding varies from year to year.

Carter also reiterated President Obama’s veto threat on any budget that keeps the caps in place.

“That is why President Obama has said he will not accept a budget that locks in sequester going forward…or one that severs the vital links between all the pieces of our national security – from State to [USAID] to Homeland Security to DoD,” he said.

“President Obama, Secretary Kerry, and I will not waver as we resist proposals that undermine critical investments in all the fundamentals of our national security and national power,” he added.

Carter urged lawmakers to make compromises on tax and spending reform in order to lift the caps imposed by the 2011 Budget Control Act.

“This is a time for statesmanship – a time for members of both parties to acknowledge the extraordinary turbulence in today’s world, and to come together behind a long-term budget that stands behind our strength and security as a nation,” he said.

IRAN TALKS NEAR DEADLINE: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani reached out directly to Western leaders on Thursday as negotiators approach a deadline in talks over his country’s nuclear program.

U.S. negotiators in Lausanne, Switzerland, received a letter from Rouhani to Obama, National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said. The details of the letter are not known.

The Iranian leader also sent letters to the leaders of five other countries participating to the nuclear talks “explaining Iran’s position on nuclear issues,” he wrote on Twitter.

Rouhani spoke on the phone with British Prime Minister David Cameron and French President François Hollande.

Republican lawmakers are keeping up pressure on the Obama administration.

In Washington, Republican Reps. Peter Roskam (Ill.) and Lee Zeldin (N.Y.) urged House appropriators to cut off funding for U.S. participation in talks over Iran’s nuclear program.

“[A]fter two negotiation extensions, billions of dollars in sanctions relief, and an emerging deal that would utterly fail to dismantle Iran’s nuclear program, we should abandon these talks until Tehran is prepared to make meaningful concessions that would truly block its path to a bomb,” the pair wrote in a letter to Reps. Kay Granger (R-Texas) and Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.), the leaders of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on State Department and foreign aid.

“We therefore respectfully request that you work to include the prohibition on additional funds for U.S. involvement in these ill-conceived negotiations,” Roskam and Zeldin continued.

“At this point, Iran seems more intent on buying time to advance its nuclear program rather than negotiating in good faith,” they wrote. “Congress must act to ensure the negotiations with Iran do not proceed if Tehran continues its pursuit of nuclear weapons with impunity and if no meaningful progress is made.”

Meanwhile, former United Nations Ambassador John Bolton argued in an op-ed that bombing Iran is the best method for halting its nuclear arms efforts.

“The inescapable conclusion is that Iran will not negotiate away its nuclear program,” he wrote in a piece titled “To Stop Iran’s Bomb, Bomb Iran,” that appeared in The New York Times.

The best solution, Bolton argued, is targeted air strikes on Iran’s nuclear production sites.

“Time is terribly short, but a strike can still succeed,” Bolton said.

DOD DROPS ANTI-ISIS FLYERS. The Pentagon dropped 60,000 leaflets warning people in the Syrian town of Ar-Raqqa not to join the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

The leaflets depict the gruesome image of an ISIS recruiting office with new cadets lining up to join, but then being put through a meat-grinder.

“The message of this leaflet is, if you allow yourself to be recruited by Daesh, you will find yourself in a meat-grinder that is not beneficial to your health,” according to DOD spokesman Army Col. Steve Warren, using a derogatory Arabic nickname for the group

The Pentagon said the leaflets were dropped over the town by a U.S. Air Force F-15E fighter jet on March 16, to dissuade new recruits living in the ISIS stronghold from joining. They were dispensed using a canister.

In the leaflet, a sign with an arrow points to “Da’ish Recruiting Office,” and ultimately to a meat grinder labelld “Da’ish.” A television screen in the corner says, “Now serving 6001,” and a scared young man in the front of the line has a ticket with that number on it.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

— Boehner: Obama is an ‘anti-war president’

— GOP senators warn: ‘Middle East is on fire’

— GOP bill would cut off aid to countries with Gitmo recidivists

— House Armed Services chief expects ‘lots’ of feedback on acquisition reform bill

— McCain: Pentagon wasting money studying ‘bomb-sniffing elephants’

Please send tips and comments to Kristina Wong, kwong@digital-stage.thehill.com, and Martin Matishak, mmatishak@digital-stage.thehill.com.