ABC’s The View blasted former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for slamming President Joe Biden for exchanging arms dealer Viktor Bout for WNBA star Brittney Griner.
Russia returned Griner to U.S. custody on Thursday in exchange for Bout, an arms dealer who was serving a 25-year prison sentence in the United States. Griner was arrested in Russia in February, one week before Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, for having less than a gram of cannabis oil. Griner was sentenced to a 9-year term in a penal colony.
Despite the Biden administration’s efforts, former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan was not included in the swap as Russia reportedly was only willing to do a one-for-one deal. Whelan is serving a 16-year prison sentence on baseless charges of him being a U.S. spy.
“The Trump administration was always very clear. We weren’t going to trade bad guys for celebrities because it creates the wrong incentives for the bad guys as we go forward,” Pompeo told Fox News on Sunday. “It’s not good for American national security. It’s not good for people traveling across the world.”
“We can be glad she’s home, and we are, but also recognize that we are changing our no-negotiation policy and that can have real ramifications in the future,” Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) told ABC’s This Week.
During Monday’s show, after playing the soundbites of Pompeo and Kinzinger, The View called out Pompeo being hypocritical considering that when he was America’s top diplomat he negotiated the release of 5,000 Taliban prisoners as part of a 2020 deal with the Taliban to end the U.S. war in Afghanistan.
Without mentioning former President Donald Trump by name, whom Pompeo served under, co-host Whoopi Goldberg noted that “you-know-who traded for no one and gave 5,000 people. He gave 5,000 Taliban guys.”
“How come no one’s bitching about that?” she said.
Co-host Sunny Hostin joined the bashing:
I think it’s just the sheer hypocrisy of it because I have, and I’ve said it here, always felt conflicted about negotiating with terrorists because I do think it will encourage a terrorist to grab other Americans. And I don’t like that Pompeo was saying, you know, you don’t trade terrorists for celebrities. She’s a person. She’s a human being. She’s someone that someone is loved and she’s an American. It’s about Americans, not just celebrity.
But the other thing is Paul Whelan, the marine who served his country, was taken under President Trump’s watch. That was 2018, and he did nothing. He didn’t talk about it. We didn’t hear about it, and, in fact, you don’t have to listen to me because his brother, his sister, his family, they’re all pointing out the hypocrisy.
In fact, his brother said that Trump was not prepared to or interested in working towards his brother’s release. Not interested. His sister said, it just is really distressing to me that people can’t do the math and realize that Trump was the president when Paul was arrested and that he was the president for the next two years.
So how dare you, former twice impeached, one-term president — say this. How dare you. And Adam Kinzinger, I’m a little surprised at you too.
Watch above via ABC.
Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com
For more latest TV News Click Here