That may sound like an impossible notion at first, but please hear this out. Someone just suggested that there is something positive about the unbalanced prisoner swap that President Joe Biden and his administration conducted with Russian President Vladimir Putin – and that is a positive for both the United States and former President Donald Trump. (You read the headline, so it’s no substantial secret who that person is – JD Vance, the Republican vice presidential nominee. More on his quote in a minute.)
As we wrote on Thursday, the deal that freed two Americans affected not only Americans and Russians, but also prisoners from other countries. But hazardous and violent Russian criminals were able to go free.
Background: Russia releases Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan as part of a massive prisoner exchange
On Thursday morning went to his Truth Social accountand noted that this was not a good deal for our side:
“So when are they going to release the details of the prisoner swap with Russia? How many people are we getting in exchange for them? Are we paying them cash too? Are they giving us cash (please retract that question because I’m sure the answer is NO)?” the former president asked in his post.
“Are we letting murderers, killers or gangsters go free? I’m just curious because we never make good deals on anything, especially not on hostage exchanges,” Trump added.
The former president further said that handing over money to an enemy country would set a “bad precedent for the future.”
“They are blackmailing the United States of America. They call it the trade complex – so no one realizes how bad it is!” he wrote.
Later, my colleague Mike Miller wrote about Trump’s vice presidential nominee’s visit to the southern border in the Copper State on Thursday, following a rousing rally on Wednesday evening in the suburb of Glendale, Arizona.
Read more:
WATCH: JD Vance wows rallygoers at Western Trail Swing to Glendale, Arizona
WATCH: JD Vance visits the southern border and calmly thwarts “border czar” Kamala Harris
Well, Vance says that this deal, which brings the Americans home from Russian captivity, is actually a plus for the USA and of course also for Trump, because it says a lot about how great the concern of foreign heads of state like Putin is about the former president returning to the White House in the elections.
These remarks came during an interview with CNN while Vance was reviewing conditions at the border. Vance told CNN:
“We definitely want these Americans to return home. It was ridiculous that they were in prison in the first place,” Vance said.
“But we have to ask ourselves: Why are they coming home? And I think it’s because the bad guys around the world are realizing that Donald Trump will soon be back in office, so they’re cleaning up,” he said. “That’s a good thing and I think it’s a testament to Donald Trump’s strength.”
Note that CNN does not seem particularly joyful about having to report on this view of Vance. chose as headline to the story, “JD Vance thanks Trump for prisoner swap Biden negotiated.” They even tried to question the White House about Vance’s comments, to which Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan responded, “I don’t understand this,” according to The Hill story (link above).
You nearly You feel sorry for the conventional media – and CNN in particular – until you remember in a millisecond that it’s CNN, a network whose ratings are so bad that it can’t stop kicking itself in the foot. It’s nice to see that this state of normality is continuing here.
