Vice President Biden on Tuesday offered a different account of his advice to President Obama on the Osama bin Laden raid, an issue that could haunt hi

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The Hill:

Vice President Biden on Tuesday offered a different account of his advice to President Obama on the Osama bin Laden raid, an issue that could haunt him if he decides to challenge Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination.

 

Biden said that only two advisers — then-CIA Director Leon Panetta and Defense Secretary Robert Gates — gave definitive answers on whether Obama should carry out the raid, contradicting Clinton’s claim she fully backed the mission.

 

“Panetta said go, Bob Gates said don’t go,” Biden said during a panel discussion with former vice president Walter Mondale at George Washington University.

The vice president disputed claims he opposed the mission. He said he privately supported the raid, but while in a room with other advisers, recommended that Obama wait to verify whether bin Laden was actually in the Abottabad, Pakistan, compound before launching the strike.

Biden said he only advised Obama to “go” when the two were alone to avoid boxing the president in on a decision.

"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.”

Biden’s account, however, differs from the one he gave in 2012. At that time, he told House Democrats he warned against the operation, one of the most consequential decisions of Obama’s presidency.