When the Americans freed from Russia stepped on U.S. soil late Thursday night, the first hugs came from a beaming President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
The scene showed a dramatic, poignant and possibly life-saving rescue of “wrongly detained” U.S. citizens.
It was also the kind of image political election campaigns would pay a fortune to get.
Politics, perhaps inevitably, became a subtext to the multinational prisoner swap that freed 16 Westerners from Russia and sent eight Russian spies and at least one convicted assassin back to Russia.
Biden, in announcing the hard-fought deal, credited the relationships with U.S. allies, especially Germany, that he had worked to repair after the era in which then-President Trump was dismissive of such partnerships. Even now, Republicans are campaigning on a platform that promotes isolationism.
“Allies matter,” Biden said from the White House earlier Thursday, surrounded by families of the prisoners as he announced the swap was under way.
“For anyone who questions whether allies matter, they do,” he said in an unsubtle dig at the GOP. “Today is a powerful example of why it’s vital to have friends in this world. Friends you can trust, work with and depend upon, especially on matters of great consequence and sensitivity like this.”
Biden noted that Poland, Slovenia, Norway and Turkey, as well as Germany, had to be persuaded to make “bold and brave” decisions to cooperate, in some cases agreeing to release criminals without receiving anything in exchange. All five countries are members of NATO, a longtime Trump target.
Biden was able to burnish his legacy as a world leader with keen diplomatic skills in the twilight of his long political career, a redemptive and validating moment for a man essentially being forced aside.
At the same time, administration officials were deliberate in placing Harris, the presumptive Democratic nominee, in the center of the picture. They emphasized what they described as her role in sealing the deal, including a one-on-one meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, a reluctant participant in the exchange.
Scholz’s assent was essential because of the release from German prison of a convicted Russian government assassin, who had killed a former Chechen rebel in broad daylight in the middle of Berlin, satisfied Russian President Vladimir Putin’s top-of-the-list demand. (Germany received five of its citizens who had been imprisoned in Russia.)
Administration officials also saw to it that Harris was at Joint Base Andrews, site of the U.S. military airport outside Washington where the freed Americans arrived, in time Thursday night to be part of the reception. Earlier Thursday, her participation was not certain because she was in Texas delivering a eulogy at the funeral for Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee.
“This is an incredible day and you can see it in the families and in their eyes,” Harris said from the tarmac where the freed Americans landed. The former captives, she said, showed “incredible courage in the face of atrocious and devastating circumstances.”
She both reveled in the heady moment and praised her boss and what his policies — many of them hers too — can accomplish.
“This is an extraordinary testament to the importance of having a president who understands the power of diplomacy and strengthening alliances,” she said.
Whether or not by design, the deal also proved Trump wrong when he recently suggested that only he would be able to free the most high-profile of the captive Americans, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, because of his friendship with the autocratic president of Russia. He had said Putin would release the reporter as a “favor” when Trump wins the election.
It is not clear what impact any of this will have for voters.
But Trump was not waiting to find out. He swiftly launched into a rant disparaging the prisoner swap, suggesting without evidence that the administration may have paid cash for the release of Gershkovich, Alsu Kurmasheva and Paul Whelan. U.S. officials said they did not pay Russia anything nor agree to ease any of the many sanctions Washington has imposed since Putin invaded Ukraine.
U.S. negotiators were “an embarrassment,” Trump said.
“They’re calling the trade ‘complex’” the Republican presidential candidate wrote on Truth Social, his social media platform. “That’s so nobody can figure out how bad it is!”
Every president in recent years, including Trump, has overseen deals to free U.S. citizens from imprisonment in foreign countries.
Biden, asked during his White House remarks about Trump’s brags that he could have freed hostages without giving up anything, said curtly: “Why didn’t he do it when he was president?”
Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, made the unusual assertion that Moscow acted out of fear of a Trump presidency.
“We have to ask ourselves, why are they coming home?” he said on CNN. “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. …
“That’s a good thing, and I think it’s a testament to Donald Trump’s strength,” Vance said.
The comment left senior administration officials scratching their heads.
“Well, on the last comment, I — I don’t — I don’t know what to say,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby said Friday on CNN.
“There’s absolutely zero evidence at all that this deal was brought about because of some potential fear of who might be the next president,” Kirby said.
As positive and optimistic as the scenes of the return were, Democrats might have a reluctance over using the images in the campaign. The prisoner swap carries some baggage: those Russians freed from Western custody in the exchange include convicted criminals.
In addition to the government assassin, there was a sleeper cell posing as a married Argentine couple with kids while spying; suspected malicious computer hackers; people accused of busting sanctions to steal U.S. military technology for Russia, presumably to use in its war in Ukraine.
By contrast, the Westerners who Russia freed were seen by the U.S. as innocents — journalists and peaceful opponents to the Putin regime.
Critics also note that these exchanges risk sending a message that rogue nations or entities can capture Americans or other Westerners, and the U.S. will make a deal.
“We need to find a way to break the cycle of innocent people being imprisoned in Russia on trumped-up charges and used as bargaining chips by Putin to secure the release of stone-cold killers who acted on his behalf,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said. “Russia needs to pay a heavier price in the future when they turn innocent people into pawns for their corrupt regime.”
Biden’s account on X, meanwhile, features photos and videos of the former captives joyfully embracing relatives. “Tonight is about reuniting families,” Biden wrote in one post. “Welcome home, Paul, Evan, and Alsu. You’re right where you belong.”