Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) said Tuesday that he believes President Barack Obama's decision to release five detainees from the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay in exchange for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who has been in Taliban captivity for nearly five years, is part of his "obsession" to close Guantanamo Bay and thereby ensure his legacy.
"This president has an obsession, has two obsessions I guess I should say, that he wants to turn into his legacy when he leaves office," Inhofe said, speaking on TheBlaze TV's Pat and Stu. "One of those happens to be to close Gitmo. We've known this for a long time."
Inhofe, the ranking member on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he and others knew Obama was going to try to transfer dangerous prisoners out of Guantanamo Bay, and that's why they put certain requirements in place to make it more difficult.
Senator James Inhofe (R-Okla.), ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, speaks during a hearing March 13, 2014 in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AFP/Getty Images/Mandel Ngan)
Asked whether the president broke the law in failing to fulfill these requirements, including a provision requiring Congress be given 30 days' notice of a transfer, Inhofe said, "There's no doubt about it."
Inhofe said the five prisoners released are responsible for countless deaths, and there's no telling how many more will be killed now that they've been released.
The senator predicted that Obama's next move will be to say something like, "'Well, everyone says that we've now turned loose the five most egregious, dangerous terrorists that we had in Gitmo, so the other 49 are not that bad. Let them all go.'"
"I get the impression this president has lied and has broken the law so many times that it's just ... something that he thinks people don't notice," Inhofe said.
Obama on Tuesday defended his decision to exchange five Guantanamo Bay detainees for Bergdahl, saying his administration consulted with Congress about the matter “for some time” and that the U.S. has an obligation to not leave its military personnel behind.
Watch the rest of Inhofe's interview, and find out what the senator believes President Obama's second "obsession" is, below:
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