In 2012, Vice President Joe Biden told the story of President Obama deciding to send a Navy SEAL team to kill Osama bin Laden. Hillary Clinton, the secretary of state at the time, “hedged” her bet, according to Biden’s telling of the story.
Biden, for his part, advised against sending in the SEALs to kill bin Laden. (Biden now says he privately advised the president to do it.)
Watch Biden’s remarks from 2012:
“The president, he went around the table with all the senior people, including the chiefs of staff, and he said, ‘I have to make a decision. What is your opinion?’ He started with the national security advisor, the secretary of State, and he ended with me,” Biden said. “Every single person in that room hedged their bet except Leon Panetta. Leon said go. Everyone else said, 49, 51. He got to me. He said, ‘Joe, what do you think?’ And I said, ‘You know, I didn’t know we had so many economists around the table.’ I said, ‘We owe the man a direct answer. Mr. President, my suggestion is, don’t go. We have to do two more things to see if he’s there.'”
