Politics

NBC’s Chuck Todd Thinks US Government Deliberately Made Taliban Mugshots Look Scary

Brendan Bordelon Contributor
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NBC’s White House correspondent Chuck Todd believes the five Taliban prisoners released from Gitmo were deliberately made to look more threatening than they actually are, claiming the U.S. government “wants them to have that menacing look.”

Todd spoke Tuesday to ESPN radio host Tony Kornheiser about the prisoner swap between the U.S. government and the Taliban, which saw the trade of captured Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl for five high-ranking Taliban officials held in Guantanamo Bay since the early days of the war in Afghanistan.

Gitmo prisoners

[Photo via CNN]

“By the way, that picture? Every time they show the picture of those five guys? Scary,” Kornheiser told Todd. “They don’t look like you’re gonna have a good day if you’re playing basketball against them.”

“Yeah, you assume the mugshots we have for them, we’re not putting them in the best light,” Todd replied. “We probably don’t have hair and make-up when we’re providing them, you think?”

“We want them to have that menacing look, I assume,” the reporter asserted.

“Who? Who?” Kornheiser asked incredulously.

Todd ignored the question, instead explaining how the White House’s attempt to use the Bergdahl family to shield itself from political criticism backfired on President Obama.

The five released prisoners were captured on the battlefield in the months and years immediately following the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, and were probably not pleased with their predicament — a more likely explanation for their hateful glares than any U.S. policy on terrorist mugshots.

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