Every passing day of Biden’s presidency comes with new insults for his administration and the past weekend was nothing different with the controversial prisoner swap of Russian citizen Victor Bout in exchange for American basketball player Brittney Griner.
Victor Bout had been in an American prison since 2008 after his arrest in Thailand over charges of conspiracy to kill Americans and terrorism, which he has consistently denied.
Brittney Griner was arrested in Russia in February and pleaded guilty to charges of smuggling hashish oil, for which she was sentenced to 9 years in prison.
On Thursday, December 8, Bout and Griner were released in a prisoner swap deal between the Biden administration and the Russian government. The exchange was widely slammed by American conservatives, who called it a bad deal because Griner wasn’t worth exchanging for an important prisoner as Bout.
Instead of Griner, they would rather have former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan released from Russia. Whelan was arrested in 2018 for alleged espionage and was convicted and sentenced to 16 years in prison.
Interestingly, it’s not just the American conservatives critical of Biden’s decision to get Griner home instead of Whelan. The Russian state television agrees and has mocked the Biden administration for picking Griner over Whelan.
On December 9, a video clip was tweeted by conservative commentator and podcast host Liz Wheeler, showing Russian journalist Margarita Simonyan commenting on Biden’s choice for the prisoner swap. Simonyan called Whelan a hero for Americans who spied in Russia on a mission to serve his country and counted three reasons why Bidden won’t get him released instead of Griner.
“His first problem is he is white. His second problem is he is a man. His third problem – he is heterosexual. This is something that cannot be forgiven today.”
Simonyan’s opinion was brutally honest and right on the mark, as the radical left’s war on American straight white men is an open but unofficial declaration.
Griner is the opposite of Whelan – a black lesbian – and fits perfectly into liberal identity politics. Fox News also wrote about Simonyan’s video:
The moderator added that it was a victory for Russia that the U.S. chose a celebrity over a former Marine, as it shows what the United States values.
The Comeback used the headline “Russian media brutally mocks the United States for Brittney Griner” to report Simonyan’s comments on Biden’s choice of bringing Griner home and leaving behind Whelan.