JITTERY JOE
Joe Biden ‘advised AGAINST Osama bin Laden raid because he was worried about failure,’ Obama’s memoir reveals
JOE Biden advised Barack Obama to wait on raiding Osama bin Laden's compound because he was worried about possibly failing, the former president wrote in his new memoir.
According to book, to be released next Tuesday, “weighed in against the raid” in May 2011, in which were sent from Afghanistan to to carry out the mission.
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Obama said that his then-vice president said he suggested that Obama take more time to make a decision on the raid, telling him, “Don’t go.”
Biden also apparently told Obama to “follow your instincts,” , which has obtained a copy of the , A Promised Land, before its release next week.
Top advisers to Obama were debating whether their intelligence was strong enough to attack – which would violate Pakistan’s sovereignty.
Obama wrote in his memoir that when he made the decision to send the Navy Seals in, Biden backed him immediately.
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Biden has been attacked in the political world for his advice for the former president.
Earlier this year, – claimed that he didn’t tell Obama not to go for the raid to take out bin Laden.
during a retreat that Obama went around asking for his top advisers’ opinions on what to do.
“The president, he went around the table with all the senior people, including the chiefs of staff, and he said, ‘I have to make a decision. What is your opinion?’
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“He started with the national security adviser, the secretary of state, and he ended with me.
“He said, ‘Joe, what do you think?’ And I said, ‘You know, I didn’t know we had so many economists around the table.’ I said, ‘We owe the man a direct answer. Mr. President, my suggestion is, don’t go. We have to do two more things to see if he’s there.’”
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Biden’s advice to Obama at the time has stuck with him in , as Republicans have used it in attack ads against him.
Some ads claimed that Biden opposed the raid altogether, which according to both Biden and Obama, is not true.
Obama wrote in his memoir that Biden was concerned about “the enormous consequences of failure” if the raid were to not be successful.
Biden said Obama “should defer any decision until the intelligence community was more certain that bin Laden was in the compound.”
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The raid ended up being a success, and the Navy Seal team killed bin Laden – founder of – on May 2, 2011, years after he masterminded the on the .
Obama wrote: “As had been true in every major decision I’d made as president.”
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“I appreciated Joe’s willingness to buck the prevailing mood and ask tough questions, often in the interest of giving me the space I needed for my own internal deliberations.”
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Obama said that “as the helicopters took off” following the successful operation, “Joe placed a hand on my shoulder and squeezed.”
“‘Congratulations, boss,’” Obama said Biden told him.
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