Guests:Michael Boyd & Seth Kaplan
Eric began Thursday's show with the latest on 27-year-old Andreas Lubitz, the German copilot who intentionally crashed a passenger jet into the Alps, killing 149 people. Aviation experts Michael Boyd and Seth Kaplan elaborated on the mass murder. "I'm not really on board with a lot of this," Boyd said. "We know something happened in the cockpit, but there are a lot of things here that don't pass the smell test in terms of his motivation. This is a quality airline and there is nothing in this man's background, so this is probably a pilot who got deranged." Kaplan pointed out that reinforced cockpit doors played an unintended role. "You can't optimize for everything. After 9/11 we got in the mentality of keeping the bad guys out of the cockpit, not about what to do if there is a bad guy in the cockpit. When you strengthen the cockpit door and make it harder for people to get in, you make it a little more likely for something like this to happen." Eric suggested that airlines could consider testing pilots for "psychological changes in their lives."

Guests:Col. David Hunt & Lt. Col. Ralph Peters
Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who has finally been charged with desertion, now faces a military trial and the prospect of a lengthy jail sentence. Eric discussed the case with Col. David Hunt and Lt. Col. Ralph Peters. "Bergdahl's desertion led to far more American deaths than you've heard so far," Peters asserted, "and my military buddies and I are furious about this instant campaign on the part of talking heads and the American left to protect the White House. They're declaring that 'poor little Bowe' suffered enough, but Bowe Bergdahl came home and he's in good health. Where is the left's sympathy for the soldiers who didn't come home or suffered grievous disabilities? None of Obama's inner circle ever served in the military, they disdain the military!" Hunt blasted the Pentagon for taking so long to level charges against Bergdahl. "There's no defense for the way this was handled. The Army labeled Bowe Bergdahl a deserter in 2009, but we traded him for five terrorists! This is an embarrassment and we should not skip over the complicity of the Defense Department. The Army did not handle this well at all."

Guest:Dana Perino
Dana Perino, Eric's co-host on "The Five" and a former spokesperson for President Bush, entered the No Spin Zone with her take on the administration's continuing defense of the Bergdahl deal and its overall anti-terror strategy. "You will never hear President Obama admit to a mistake," she said, "and when you're in the White House, the media wants nothing more than to get you to admit a mistake and apologize for something. But too much criticism is being leveled at the spokespeople - the blame really is at the top with President Obama. If you are the spokesperson and don't agree with the policy, it doesn't matter what you think." Perino ridiculed the White House press operatives who arranged President Obama's Rose Garden ceremony with Bowe Bergdahl's parents. "It doesn't appear that anyone said, maybe we should exercise some restraint here. But again, these decisions come from the very top."

Guests:David Tafuri & Cliff May
Secretary of State John Kerry is hinting that a deal with Iran regarding its nuclear program is imminent. Eric spoke about the prospective bargain with foreign policy analysts David Tafuri and Cliff May. "Iran has only gotten worse and more radical," May said. "Iran now controls four Arab capitals and is supporting rebels in Yemen who have brought down that government. But we are hearing from John Kerry that a bad deal is better than no deal, and in ten years Iran will be welcomed into the nuclear club, even if it remains the world's leading sponsor of terrorism." But Tafuri, who served in the Obama administration, put forth a far different perspective. "President Obama wants to strike a historic agreement with Iran. Sanctions are a tool for making a recalcitrant country like Iran change its behavior, and in this case the president has brought Iran to the table and he should be lauded. If Iran gives up its nuclear ambitions in return for an easing of sanctions, that would be a positive." Eric concluded that any deal has to be judged by a few simple criteria, saying, "I want to make sure the world is safe and America is safe and Israel is safe."

Guests:Nomiki Konst & Jennice Fuentes
Will Hillary Clinton's email problems cost her support and votes? Eric posed that question to political strategists Nomiki Konst and Jennice Fuentes. "If she does run and is nominated," Konst pondered, "who will excite the base? That is the really serious issue that Democrats face because low turnout is dangerous for Democrats. If she's the status quo candidate, the base will have a hard time for coming out for someone who doesn't excite them." But Fuentes dismissed the notion that Clinton is not energizing Democrats. "All the attacks based on nothing are making her stronger, and there are some polls that say 89% of Democrats will be very proud to have her as their president. When she is put up against people like Ted Cruz or Jeb Bush, she has double digit leads. Hillary Clinton is still a very strong contender."

Guest:Howard Kurtz
Fox News media analyst Howard Kurtz, who has monitored the mainstream media's coverage of the Bowe Bergdahl case, joined Eric with his assessment. "I went back and looked at transcripts and videos," Kurtz said, "and within 24 hours of the White House announcing Bergdahl's release, mainstream outlets were reporting on the desertion question and interviewing Bergdahl's fellow platoon members, who said he had walked away from his post. Journalists felt bamboozled by the initial White House whitewash - the feel-good ceremony and Susan Rice saying he served with 'honor and distinction.' That was clearly not the case." Kurtz added that Fox News kept the story alive when many other outlets lost interest. "A turning point in the coverage was when six soldiers came on Megyn Kelly's show. When she asked them, who thinks Bowe Bergdahl was a deserter, they all raised their hands. These soldiers were genuinely outraged and journalists did their jobs by giving the soldiers a forum."