Part two of Megyn Kelly’s interview with Evan Buetow, Justin Gerleve, Cody Full, and three other men who served with Bergdahl before he disappeared. If you don’t have time for the whole clip, carve out eight minutes for the first half. To be clear, they’re not saying he should have been left behind; a life sentence as a Taliban prisoner, which may have included torture, is stiff punishment for any crime. Their objection is to the price. Having spent years defending themselves and local civilians from degenerates like the Taliban Five, go figure that they’re not eager to see them back in Afghanistan.

The Democratic nominee-in-waiting, who’s going to have to defend this stinkbomb of a trade to some greater or lesser extent for the next two years, naturally sees the issue more simply.

CLINTON: If you look at what the factors were going into the decision, of course there are competing interests and values. I mean, one of our values is, we bring everybody home off the battlefield the best we can. It doesn’t matter how they ended up in a prisoner of war situation

SAWYER: It doesn’t matter?

CLINTON: it does not matter – we bring our people home!

We’ll revisit that if and when the most explosive accusations against Bergdahl are borne out. Meanwhile, thanks to this NYT story, we’re creeping closer to “phase three” of the official Bergdahl counterspin. We’re not there yet; I think the White House and its defenders would generally rather not attack members of Bergdahl’s unit if they don’t have to, just because the politics of scrapping with veterans who stayed put and did their jobs honorably are so fraught. If these guys keep up their criticism of Bergdahl once he’s back home, though, I think they’ll decide they have no choice. Until then, the media can bide its time by whitewashing the Taliban Five.