Where was President Obama during the raid on bin Laden's compound? Well, it turns out that he was playing a fun little card game with a few of his co-workers while most of his other national security team were monitoring the Situation Room.
During a UCLA Forum, President Obama's former body man Reggie Love revealed that they ended up playing 15 games of Spades in a private dining room while events were unfolding in the Situation Room. TheBlaze explains:
On the day Navy SEALs were raiding Osama bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan and killing the 9/11 mastermind, President Obama didn’t spend every moment in the White House situation room. Instead, the commander in chief played cards in a private dining room that day, too — about 15 games of spades, in fact, his former personal assistant Reggie Love recently told a UCLA forum.
“Most people were like down in the Situation Room and [Obama] was like, ‘I’m not going to be down there, I can’t watch this entire thing,’” Love recalled during a Q&A at an Artists & Athletes Alliance event.
Instead, Love said he, Obama, White House photographer Pete Souza, and staffer Marvin Nicholson got together in a nearby private dining room and “must have played 15 games of spades” (and were interrupted by a steady stream of dispatches, according to UCLA Today).
Love didn't explain when Obama was in the Situation Room, although photos suggest he was there for the pivotal moments of the raid.
Obama's absence raised a lot of questions on radio today, and Glenn broke down exactly what it means to have the Commander-in-Chief aloof during one of the most important military operations of the decade.
"So that's where the president the was, which brings me to a couple of things that I just want to point out to you. First of all, who can't watch? Who can't watch the biggest villain in American history being shot? Who can't watch? One, somebody who is internally conflicted on this whole thing," Glenn said.
"The other reason why you play Spades all day and you're not in the situation room is because you're a coward."
"Let's play that out in our heads," Glenn said. "You're worried about the men, but you're so worried that you won't sit there and be with them? It's not like you're a casual observer. You ordered them to go do it. That means ‑‑ and here's the keyword ‑‑ you have the responsibility to be there with them. You have the responsibility. If the call needs to be made that they don't have to send somebody up on the elevator to go get you."
Glenn also said in the infamous photo of the Situation Room during the raid, Obama is sitting off to the side while Brigader General Brad Webb sat at the head of the table. Why does that matter?
"He's in the corner, in the corner, not even at the table sitting at a little folding chair, a little teeny chair off to the side like an aide to the general," Glenn said, " It's absolutely amazing, absolutely amazing. So this president is an observer of things, and he is afraid that you are going to figure it all out and know that he's a fraud and that ‑‑ one thing: He is absolutely a fraud. He's a fraud. I don't know, he might be a better person than what they've portrayed, but he's not who he says he is, in any way, shape, or form. He's just not that guy. And he's afraid. And I feel bad for him. I feel sorry for him."
