Krauthammer: For the Obama Administration ‘to Pretend This Was Anything Other Than a Ransom Is Laughable’

Thursday on Fox News Channel’s “Special Report,” Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer dismissed President Barack Obama’s claim at a news conference earlier in the day that the money delivered to the Iranian government, which coincided with the release of four U.S. hostages, was not some sort of ransom for those hostages.

According to the Washington Post columnist, the claim was “laughable” and the circumstances would lead one to believe that it was indeed a ransom.

“Look, for them to try to pretend this was anything other than a ransom is laughable, and I think it hurts their credibility,” Krauthammer said. “You can argue it was the only way. You can argue we were in negotiations and you thought what the heck, we’re going to give them $150 billion elsewhere. Why not $1.7 [billion]? It’s not a lot. And then the president’s defense of the use of cash as if this is, ‘Well, we couldn’t wire the money.’ Well, why couldn’t you wire it? He said because of sanctions. Well that means they were actually going around the law, going around sanctions and they had to do it illicitly, clandestinely at night the way it is done by gangsters. That’s because they were doing ransom. They didn’t want anyone to know and they had to go around the law and Congress. Congress didn’t know. No, this is not old news. It is new news and it is highly embarrasing.”

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