On Friday morning, the hosts of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” hammered Donald Trump for attempting to pour cold water on President Joe Biden’s widely praised success in obtaining the release of four wrongfully arrested prisoners from Russia.
Biden’s efforts to get Russian President Vladimir Putin to free Wall Street Journaljournalist Evan Gershkovich, ex-U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, and Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva were lauded on Thursday for being a crowning achievement in Biden’s last few months as president, but that didn’t keep ex-president Trump for complaining — and lying about it — on Truth social.
On MSNBC, host Katty Kay claimed Trump had “only negative things” to say about the exchange, quoting his Truth Social post and focusing on him writing, “Are we releasing murderers, killers, or thugs? Just curious because we never make good deals, at anything, but especially hostage swaps. Our ‘negotiators’ are always an embarrassment to us! I got back many hostages, and gave the opposing Country NOTHING – and never any cash. To do so is bad precedent for the future. That’s the way it should be, or this situation will get worse and worse. They are extorting the United States of America. They’re calling the trade ‘complex’ – That’s so nobody can figure out how bad it is!”
Kay then pointed out, “Paul Whelan, specifically, for example, was arrested by Russia during Donald Trump’s term in office. A quick fact check on the former president’s claim his administration never secured release of Americans without giving up anything in return: for example, in February 2020, the Trump White House agreed to free 5,000 Taliban prisoners in exchange for 1,000 prisoners.”
She continued, “Later that same year, the administration agreed to give up 250 Houthi rebels in exchange for two wrongfully detained Americans.”
Addressing co-host Jonathan Lemire, she remarked, “So, I mean, I don’t — maybe the former president, John, thinks that there is nothing that he can get out of this, and so he’s just going to attack the deal itself.”
“Yeah, and Donald Trump’s simply incapable of doing that,” Lemire agreed. “For Trump, everything is politics. Everything is about what he can try to turn to his advantage or attack his opponent. Let’s remember the dangerous rhetoric we heard from him over the last few months, where he kept saying that only he could make a deal, only he could do it.”
