'We never make good deals': Trump complains about Biden bringing imprisoned Americans home

01 August 2024

Thanks to a groundbreaking deal negotiated between multiple countries, Americans held captive in Russia are now on their way back home. But former President Donald Trump isn't as thrilled.

President Joe Biden announced Thursday afternoon that Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich — who has been wrongfully detained since March of 2023 — was on a plane back to the United States. Additionally, former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan was also released in the prisoner swap after first being arrested in 2018. ABC reported that the 24-prisoner exchange was the largest such negotiation since the Cold War.

Following press conferences by both Biden and senior administration officials announcing the completion of the exchange, Trump took to his Truth Social platform to blast the Biden administration.

"So when are they going to release the details of the prisoner swap with Russia? How many people do we get versus them? Are we also paying them cash? Are they giving us cash (Please withdraw that question, because I’m sure the answer is NO)? Are we releasing murderers, killers, or thugs?" Trump wrote. "Just curious because we never make good deals, at anything, but especially hostage swaps. Our 'negotiators' are always an embarrassment to us!"

Earlier this year, Trump wrote on his social media platform that only he could bring Gershkovich home safely, and vowed to do so as president-elect — before even taking office. Never Trump conservative Charlie Sykes wrote for MSNBC that Trump's promise to bring home the falsely imprisoned 32 year-old American journalist without giving anything in return may have been code for allowing Putin to annex parts of Ukraine or to undermine the NATO alliance should he win a second term in the White House.

"Such a move, as difficult as it would be to accomplish, would of course hand Putin a stunning geopolitical victory," Sykes wrote in May. "Like his 'friend' Vladimir, Trump views the plight of the young hostage as just another opportunity to score political points."

At the end of Biden's press conference, one reporter asked him his thoughts about Trump's comments that he could have negotiated the safe return of the American hostages "without giving anything in exchange." Biden responded: "Why didn't he do it when he was president?"

The Wall Street Journal reported that Gershkovich was allowed to keep papers he wrote while in prison, including notes for a forthcoming book and letters he received during his time behind bars. Russian officials told Gershkovich — who was recently sentenced to 16 years in a Russian penal colony for espionage — to write a formal request for clemency to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Gershkovich reportedly "filled the page" in Russian, and concluded his request with a separate one — to interview Putin himself.

The massive prisoner swap, according to ABC, also freed Radio Free Europe journalist Alsu Kurmasheva and Russian opposition leader Vladimir Kara-Murza (a dual citizen of both Russia and the UK). His wife and children all live in the United States.

Almar Latour, the publisher of the Journal, said Gershkovich's charges were "based on sham accusations and a fake trial as part of an all-out assault on the free press and truth."

"Unfortunately, many journalists remain unjustly imprisoned in Russia and around the world," Latour said.

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