The Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump criticized the prisoner swap this week that led to the release of three Americans and one American with a green card from Russia.
During a rally on Saturday in Atlanta, Trump attacked the Biden-Harris administration for sending “some of the greatest killers anywhere in the world” to Russia in return for former Marine Paul Whelan, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, and journalist Alsu Kurmasheva from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
“Vladimir Putin, I would want to congratulate you on yet another outstanding achievement,” Trump declared.
Under the accord, Western nations freed eight Russians, including Vadim Krasikov, a former high-ranking FSB colonel convicted of killing a former Chechen fighter in Berlin in 2019 and sentenced to life in prison. American imprisonment freed three of the seven Russians.
The former president stated that while it was “great to claim we got ’em back,” the agreement “established a horrible precedent” without mentioning the Americans who have subsequently returned home.
Trump remarked, “We made some nasty, horrific bargains, but we got our people back.”
The Republican contender expressed a number of concerns regarding the terms of the agreement in a post on his social media site, Truth Social, on Thursday, only hours after the correspondence became public.
“When will they disclose the specifics of the prisoner exchange with Russia?” Trump wrote. “How many individuals do we have against them? Should we also give them monetary payments? I’m sure the answer to the question—please remove it—is no. Are they giving us cash? Are we releasing thugs, murderers, or murderers? We rarely strike good deals on anything, but hostage exchanges particularly piqued my interest. We are continually embarrassed by our “negotiators”! I released numerous prisoners and made no financial offers to the opposing country. This sets a poor example for the future. That’s the way things should be; otherwise, the situation will only worsen. They have the United States of America at their mercy. They refer to the trade as “complicated” because no one can understand just how terrible it is.”
Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump’s rival in the general election, was “very much a fundamental component of the team that helped make this happen,” according to National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on Thursday. In their own statements that day, she and President Joe Biden both praised the homecoming of Gershkovich, Whelan, and Kurmasheva.
In response to a question on his message to foreign nations that could illegally hold Americans in order to achieve their goals, Biden replied, “I don’t buy this idea that you’re going to let these individuals rot in jail.” “All citizens of our nation have received warnings about what to do and where to avoid. They only need to pay attention.”
The day before, Trump made a commitment that he would not face Harris on ABC and would instead sponsor a live debate on Fox News that would take place in Pennsylvania on September 4. The vice president remains dedicated to the September 10th date that Biden and Trump decided upon in May when they met with ABC News.
