Biden celebrates the release of Americans held in Russia

Delivering remarks in the White House State Dining room on Thursday just hours after news of a massive prisoner swap involving the U.S. and Russia broke, President Joe Biden declared the efforts to bring home three Americans and one green card holder a “feat of diplomacy and friendship.” 

“And now, their brutal ordeal is over,” Biden said on Thursday, flanked on either side by family members of the Amerians being released, “and they’re free.” 

The president started his remarks by individually naming and describing the Americans and green card holder being released, a list that includes Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, Marine veteran Paul Whelan, and journalists Alsu Kurmasheva and Vladimir Kara-Murza, noting that “All four have been imprisoned unjustly in Russia.” 

“This is an incredible relief for all the family members gathered here and it’s a relief to the friends and colleagues all across the country who have been praying for this day for a long time,” Biden said. 

He went on to say that he and the family members joining him on Thursday had just spoken with the now-freed prisoners by phone in the Oval Office, adding they are out of Russia and were flown to Turkey, where the transfer took place.  

“Welcome almost home,” Biden recalled telling the freed Americans when asked by a reporter at the end of his remarks on Thursday what he said to them over the phone.

In all, the exchange, the largest between the U.S. and Russia since the Cold War, involved seven nations and set 24 people free. As part of the deal, 16 people being held in Russia – which includes the three Americans, one American green card holder, five German citizens and seven Russians deemed political prisoners by the U.S. – were released in exchange for eight people held in the U.S., Germany, Norway, Slovenia, and Poland. 

Biden lauded the role of Turkey – which National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said earlier provided “critical logistical support” – as well as Germany, Norway, Slovenia, and Poland in Thursday’s swap. 

“They all stepped up, and they stood with us,” Biden said on Thursday. “They stood with us, and they made bold and brave decisions, released prisoners being held in their countries who were justifiably being held, and provided logistical support to get the Americans home.”

Multiple times throughout his remarks, the president emphasized the importance of America’s allies overseas, citing Thursday’s prisoner exchange as a prime example and appearing to implicitly take a jab at Republicans and his predecessor running for reelection, former President Donald Trump, some of whom have taken a more isolationist view of the United States’ place on the world stage. 

“So, for anyone who questions whether allies matter, they do, they matter,” Biden said. 

At the end of his remarks, a reporter asked the president about Trump’s claims that he could secure the release of Americans being held without giving anything in return, to which Biden quipped: “Why didn’t he do it when he was president?”

Trump, for his part, posted to his Truth Social account questioning the parameters of the deal, alleging that “we never make good deals, at anything, but especially hostage swaps.” The former president also did not share a positive sentiment for the release of hostages.

Biden on Thursday added that it “says a lot about us” that the deal included freeing Russian political prisoners. 

“They stood up for democracy and human rights, their own leaders threw them in prison,” Biden said. “The United States helped secure their release as well.”

“We are in the United States – we stand for freedom, for liberty, for justice — not only for our own people but for others as well,” he continued.

Sullivan on Thursday told reporters at the White House press briefing that the massive deal was “vintage Joe Biden” and that the president was “personally engaged in diplomacy.”  

“I would say that if you had not had Joe Biden sitting in the Oval Office, I don’t think this would have happened,” he said. 

Sullivan added that Biden was working on the deal the day he dropped his bid for a second term in the White House and endorsed his vice president, Kamala Harris, which followed a painful few weeks for the president in which some in his party were calling on him to step out of the race. 

Biden has made bringing home wrongfully detained Americans around the world a major priority, even citing it a goal for his last six months in office during his Oval Office address to explain his decision to drop out last week. 

The president successfully secured the return of former U.S. Marine Trevor Reed and WNBA star Brittney Griner in separate swaps with Russia during his presidency. In all, Biden on Thursday said he has brought home 70 Americans who were wrongfully detained abroad. 

The vice president, who is now the likely 2024 Democratic nominee for president, addressed the swap while on the tarmac in Houston before boarding her plane to return to Washington. The vice president said the Americans who were imprisoned and their families showed “incredible courage,” calling the trials that kept them behind bars a “sham.” 

“As we celebrate today’s news, we must also keep front of mind that there are other Americans that are unjustly being held in places around the world,” Harris said. “And we will never stop fighting for their release.”

“That is my solemn commitment to my fellow Americans,” she later said.

Sullivan on Thursday referred to Harris as a “core member of the team that helped make this happen,” noting that she took part in meetings on the topic in the Oval Office and spoke about it with the German chancellor at the Munich Security Conference earlier this year. 

During her brief remarks on Thursday, Harris said she spoke with the widow of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny who died in Russian custody earlier this year. The U.S., Sullivan told reporters on Thursday, was originally working on a potential deal that would have included Navalny before he died. 

“In fact, on the very day that he died, I saw Evan’s parents, and I told them that the president was determined to get this done even in light of that tragic news and that we were going to work day and night to get to this day,” Sullivan said. 

The president ended his remarks by noting that Friday was the 13th birthday of the daughter of Kurmasheva, a journalist and one of the Americans being released. Biden put his arm around the daughter and had the room sing “Happy Birthday” to her before remarking that she can now spend her birthday with her mother.

Biden and Harris are set to greet the Americans on Thursday night when they land in the U.S.

Spectrum News’ Justin Tasolides contributed to this report.