A former U.S. Navy SEAL alleged Monday that then-President Barack Obama ordered a 24-hour delay in the raid to take down al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden so he would not miss the 2011 White House Correspondents Dinner.
SEALs from the Naval Special Warfare Development Group, also known as SEAL Team Six, killed bin Laden in the May 2, 2011, raid on his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Matt Bissonnette, whose book “No Easy Day” described the raid, alleged during the episode of “The Shawn Ryan Show” that the delay caused the loss of the modified UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter that went down during the mission.
“Why did the helicopter crash?” host Shawn Ryan asked Bissonnette, who responded, “Great question. Okay, so, do you know what was happening in Washington, D.C., the day before the mission that the president would have wanted to be at?”
“I don’t remember,” Ryan replied, with Bissonnette saying, “The White House Correspondents Dinner. So, the day we had originally planned to launch our mission was the day before we actually went, right? It was a weekend, zero abloom, so, good, good time to go. The president got involved and was like, ‘Hey, can you guys push this one day to the right? Can we push it to the right? Want to hit my dinner.’”
Obama did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
WATCH:
During the 2011 dinner, Obama took shots at Donald Trump, who was then the host of “The Apprentice,” which reportedly led the real estate developer to launch his successful 2016 campaign for the White House.
Bissonnette explained that people “way above my pay grade” agreed to the delay, but that the temperature the following day was eight degrees warmer than it was on the day of the operation, which affected how much lift the helicopter’s blades could develop.
“What I’ve been told is we got into the target area, our pilot was at full throttle, and we settled with power `cause he didn’t have enough ass to keep the helicopter in the air,” Bissonnette told Ryan. “So, why did we crash? Because President Obama needed to hit the White House Correspondents Dinner.”
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Ryan responded, with Bissonette responding, “That’s a portion of it.”
The May 2, 2011, raid ended the manhunt that spanned nearly a decade from the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack that killed nearly 3,000 people and bin Laden’s escape from American forces during the Battle of Tora Bora in December 2001.
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