MSNBC “Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough said Friday that President Joe Biden’s failure to get former Marine Paul Whelan out of Russia along with WNBA star Brittney Griner is actually former President Donald Trump’s fault.
Griner was released Thursday from a Russian penal colony following an exchange for notorious arms dealer Viktor Bout. She was arrested in February after she Russian authorities allegedly caught her with cannabis oil at a Moscow Airport. She pleaded guilty to charges of drug possession and smuggling in July and was sentenced in August to nine years in a Russian penal colony.
Scarborough lauded the Whelan family’s statement, which said while they were “devastated” Paul was not included in the trade, they were happy that Griner was going home, calling it “the right decision.” (RELATED: ‘What The F*ck Are You Doing?’: Barstool Sports President Says Biden Got Fleeced Trading The ‘Merchant Of Death’)
“Whelan’s family, they sent out a very gracious statement yesterday, and I think there’s a reason for that,” Scarborough said. “The reason is that Joe Biden and the Biden administration, they’re working like hell to secure his release, and sadly, Donald Trump, when he was president of the United States, allowed Paul Whelan to be arrested and did nothing about it. In fact, 2018 is when he was telling Jonathan Lemire that he trusted Vladimir Putin more than he trusted the men and women in our own intel community.”
“[Trump] could make a difference,” Scarborough added.
Trump allegedly rejected a deal to trade Bout, known as the “Merchant of Death,” for Whelan, former national security advisor John Bolton said.
“The possibility of a Bout-for-Whelan trade existed back then,” Bolton said. “It wasn’t made, for very good reasons having to deal with Viktor Bout.”