The co-hosts of The view jointly hit back at Republicans on the talk show today, slamming politicians who criticized President Joe Biden for trading international arms dealer Viktor Bout for WNBA player Brittney Griner, who has been jailed in a Russian jail since February.
While politicians like Mike Pompeo and Adam Kinzinger claimed the negotiations set a dangerous precedent, Whoopi asked Goldberg why “nobody bitches about the former president.” Donald Trump releases 5,000 Taliban memberswhich she said he “didn’t trade for anyone”.
Alyssa Farah Griffin, who was then working under the former president’s administration, told the panel she opposed the decision, which she believes Trump made to “bring the Taliban into the peace negotiations, which then fell apart.”
Meanwhile, Sunny Hostin pointed out the “sheer hypocrisy” at play in comparing the two situations. Though she feels “conflicted” when it comes to dealing with terrorists, she has disagreed with Pompeo’s comments about “trading a terrorist for a celebrity.”
“[Griner is] a person. She is human. She’s someone who is loved and she’s American,” Hostin said. “So this is about Americans, not just celebrity.”
The presenter went on to talk about Paul Whelan, the former Marine who has been imprisoned in Russia since 2018 and will remain there after Griner’s release. Noting that he was placed “under the supervision of President Trump,” Hostin said the former president “did nothing” and “we haven’t heard anything about it.”
After reading tweets from Whelan’s family members who claimed Trump was “not willing or interested in working toward his release,” and slammed him for mentioning Whelan’s name “more times in the last 24 hours than in the two years of his presidency,” Hostin said, “How dare you, former twice-impeached, single-term president, say that? How dare you.”
While Griffin added that “making this a partisan issue gets nothing done,” Ana Navarro echoed in her own shock that the “silent” right “suddenly came out” about Whelan. She even suggested that Republicans should go after him themselves “if they really care that much.”
“All these people have very good relations with Putin. … Donald Trump is a celebrity in Russia. He claims they are very good friends,” Navarro said. “Guess what? They can do what Bill Richardson does and they can get on a plane right now and get Paul Whelan. If they really care that much about Paul Whelan.”
The view airs weekdays at 11/10 a.m. on ABC.
