On Thursday evening, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris stood on the tarmac at Andrews Air Force Base and greeted journalists Evan Gershkovich and Alsu Kurmasheva and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan after their release from Russian prison in a historic prisoner swap.
Gershkovich, who’d been held by Russia since March 2023, repeatedly embraced Biden and Harris before running to meet his mother. Biden removed the American flag pin from his lapel and fixed it to Whelan’s clothing. Meanwhile, Kurmasheva, held since October 2023, was immediately swarmed by her two young daughters. After meeting with his family, Gershkovich walked over to reporters and expressed his thanks not only for his own release but for the freedom of Russian political prisoners who were being held by dictator Vladimir Putin’s repressive regime.
“There’s one thing I would like to say,” Gershkovich said. “It was great to get on that bus today and see not just Americans and Germans but Russian political prisoners.” He expressed how he had spent his time among prisoners held for their opposition to Putin’s regime and his hope that more of them would be freed.
It was a touching, uplifting, and glorious moment. And it was the result of complex diplomatic exchanges that both Biden and Harris had worked for literal years to achieve.
Naturally, Donald Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, want to make this story all about Trump.
Vance took the most direct—and pathetic—approach on Thursday, saying that the credit for the release of American prisoners should go to Trump.
“We certainly want these Americans to come back home. It was ridiculous that they were in prison to begin with,” said Vance. “But we have to ask ourselves: Why are they coming home? And I think it’s because bad guys all over the world recognize Donald Trump’s about to be back in office, so they’re cleaning house.”
Vance went on to call the release “a testament to Donald Trump’s strength.” But what he failed to mention was that Whelen was arrested in Russia in 2018. Trump’s “strength” didn’t get him out then. That strength also failed in freeing former Marine Trevor Reed, whom Russia arrested in 2019 and freed in 2022 after Biden negotiated a deal.
The Biden-Harris administration has now secured the release of over 70 Americans held by governments around the world. Not only is that well above the 58 Trump claimed to have freed, many of those freed by Biden were held prisoner while Trump was in the White House.
Trump had previously stated that he was the only one who could secure Gershkovich’s release and that the journalist “will be released almost immediately after the Election, but definitely before I assume Office.”
“He will be HOME, SAFE, AND WITH HIS FAMILY,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social website in May. “Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, will do that for me, but not for anyone else, and WE WILL BE PAYING NOTHING!”
Shortly after being proven wrong on Thursday, Trump criticized the prisoner exchange, saying that U.S. negotiators were an “embarrassment.”
"I got back many hostages, and gave the opposing Country NOTHING – and never any cash," Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Thursday.
That was, of course, also a lie.
Trump repeatedly handed over U.S.-held prisoners in exchange for Americans held abroad. Some of these were one-for-one exchanges, but some were far more lopsided. In 2020, Trump agreed to the release of over 200 Houthi militants in exchange for Americans Sandra Loli and Mikael Gidada.
Those Houthi militants were allowed to return to Yemen, which has served as the base for Houthi attacks on Israel and dozens of ships in the Red Sea. Whether any of the militants released by Trump were directly responsible for attacks leading to ships lost and sailors killed in the Red Sea this year isn’t known. But it is certainly possible.
What Trump and Vance are saying has nothing to do with the reality of Thursday’s exchange, which brought Americans home to tearful families and freed political prisoners from an oppressive Russian regime. Like Trump’s disgusting appearance at the National Association of Black Journalists on Wednesday, the attacks on the prisoner exchange are another sad attempt to inject Trump into a news cycle that has largely cast him aside.
To complete this latest swap, Biden pulled together a coalition of international allies, calling it a “feat of diplomacy and friendship.” It’s a feel-good moment for the nation and the world.
YouTube Video
“First of all, I don’t know, between the Olympics, Simone Biles’ floor routine, the hostages coming home—like, the vibe right now should be tattooing an American flag on your chest and running through the streets,” Sarah Longwell, an anti-Trump Republican, told CNN on Friday. “But what does [Trump] do? He sits there on his phone grumpy that the hostages are home, mad that he doesn’t get to fame, like he and Putin have some special deal, so he’s going to be able to negotiate this. He’s always Trump first, America last, despite his rhetoric, and people should be more offended by things like this than a lot of the other crazy stuff Trump does.”
It’s not just Trump who’s looking old. So is his me-me-me schtick.
Keep those good vibes going with a $5 donation to Kamala Harris’ campaign for president!
Gershkovich, who’d been held by Russia since March 2023, repeatedly embraced Biden and Harris before running to meet his mother. Biden removed the American flag pin from his lapel and fixed it to Whelan’s clothing. Meanwhile, Kurmasheva, held since October 2023, was immediately swarmed by her two young daughters. After meeting with his family, Gershkovich walked over to reporters and expressed his thanks not only for his own release but for the freedom of Russian political prisoners who were being held by dictator Vladimir Putin’s repressive regime.
“There’s one thing I would like to say,” Gershkovich said. “It was great to get on that bus today and see not just Americans and Germans but Russian political prisoners.” He expressed how he had spent his time among prisoners held for their opposition to Putin’s regime and his hope that more of them would be freed.
It was a touching, uplifting, and glorious moment. And it was the result of complex diplomatic exchanges that both Biden and Harris had worked for literal years to achieve.
Naturally, Donald Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, want to make this story all about Trump.
Vance took the most direct—and pathetic—approach on Thursday, saying that the credit for the release of American prisoners should go to Trump.
“We certainly want these Americans to come back home. It was ridiculous that they were in prison to begin with,” said Vance. “But we have to ask ourselves: Why are they coming home? And I think it’s because bad guys all over the world recognize Donald Trump’s about to be back in office, so they’re cleaning house.”
Vance went on to call the release “a testament to Donald Trump’s strength.” But what he failed to mention was that Whelen was arrested in Russia in 2018. Trump’s “strength” didn’t get him out then. That strength also failed in freeing former Marine Trevor Reed, whom Russia arrested in 2019 and freed in 2022 after Biden negotiated a deal.
The Biden-Harris administration has now secured the release of over 70 Americans held by governments around the world. Not only is that well above the 58 Trump claimed to have freed, many of those freed by Biden were held prisoner while Trump was in the White House.
Trump had previously stated that he was the only one who could secure Gershkovich’s release and that the journalist “will be released almost immediately after the Election, but definitely before I assume Office.”
“He will be HOME, SAFE, AND WITH HIS FAMILY,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social website in May. “Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, will do that for me, but not for anyone else, and WE WILL BE PAYING NOTHING!”
Shortly after being proven wrong on Thursday, Trump criticized the prisoner exchange, saying that U.S. negotiators were an “embarrassment.”
"I got back many hostages, and gave the opposing Country NOTHING – and never any cash," Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Thursday.
That was, of course, also a lie.
Trump repeatedly handed over U.S.-held prisoners in exchange for Americans held abroad. Some of these were one-for-one exchanges, but some were far more lopsided. In 2020, Trump agreed to the release of over 200 Houthi militants in exchange for Americans Sandra Loli and Mikael Gidada.
Those Houthi militants were allowed to return to Yemen, which has served as the base for Houthi attacks on Israel and dozens of ships in the Red Sea. Whether any of the militants released by Trump were directly responsible for attacks leading to ships lost and sailors killed in the Red Sea this year isn’t known. But it is certainly possible.
What Trump and Vance are saying has nothing to do with the reality of Thursday’s exchange, which brought Americans home to tearful families and freed political prisoners from an oppressive Russian regime. Like Trump’s disgusting appearance at the National Association of Black Journalists on Wednesday, the attacks on the prisoner exchange are another sad attempt to inject Trump into a news cycle that has largely cast him aside.
To complete this latest swap, Biden pulled together a coalition of international allies, calling it a “feat of diplomacy and friendship.” It’s a feel-good moment for the nation and the world.
YouTube Video
“First of all, I don’t know, between the Olympics, Simone Biles’ floor routine, the hostages coming home—like, the vibe right now should be tattooing an American flag on your chest and running through the streets,” Sarah Longwell, an anti-Trump Republican, told CNN on Friday. “But what does [Trump] do? He sits there on his phone grumpy that the hostages are home, mad that he doesn’t get to fame, like he and Putin have some special deal, so he’s going to be able to negotiate this. He’s always Trump first, America last, despite his rhetoric, and people should be more offended by things like this than a lot of the other crazy stuff Trump does.”
It’s not just Trump who’s looking old. So is his me-me-me schtick.
Keep those good vibes going with a $5 donation to Kamala Harris’ campaign for president!