Vice President Joe Biden appeared to contradict Hillary Clinton’s claim that she adamantly backed the decision to carry out the May 2, 2011 raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan.
But Biden, who many believe is set to challenge Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination, also appeared to contradict his own past admission that he opposed the mission.
Speaking at a panel discussion with former Vice President Walter Mondale at George Washington University on Tuesday, Biden detailed the discussion among Obama’s cabinet and other top officials over whether to dispatch SEAL Team 6 to carry out the raid, in which bin Laden was killed.
Biden said that only two advisers — then-CIA director Leon Panetta and then-Sec. of Defense Robert Gates — had “definitive” positions.
“Panetta said go, Bob Gates…said don’t go,” Biden said.
“Others were 59-41 [sic], some ended up saying ‘go,’ but it was such a close call,” he added.
That claim of nuanced deliberation contrasts with Clinton’s assertions that she was unwavering in her support for the mission.
“I was one who recommended to the president that he go ahead,” Clinton said during an interview in July.
The former secretary of state has touted her support of the mission as evidence that she is capable of making tough decisions during trying times.
But Biden also contradicted himself on Tuesday.
“Mr. President, my suggestion is, don’t go. We have to do two more things to see if he’s there,'” Biden said during the fateful meeting, he told a group of Democrats in Jan. 2012.
But during Tuesday’s event, Biden portrayed a more nuanced decision-making process.
“I think we should make one more pass with another UAV to see if it is him,” he says he told Obama during the cabinet meeting. He said that he “didn’t want to take a position to go if that was not where [Obama] was going to go.”
Biden said that he had a private conversation with Obama after the meeting in which he said that he should approve the raid.
“I told him my opinion that I thought he should go but to follow his own instincts,” Biden said. “I never, on a difficult issue, never say what I think finally until I go up in the Oval [Office] with him alone.”
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