Today, the American Independent reported that former Vice President and 2024 hopeful Mike Pence criticized Brittney Griner’s release from a Russian penal colony after being detained for nearly a year — calling the deal “ill-advised.”
The report notes that Pence joins a “chorus of Republicans who criticized Griner’s release, including former President Donald Trump” — who claimed the release of Griner was an “unpatriotic embarrassment for the USA.”
The American Independent: Mike Pence calls Brittney Griner release an ‘ill-advised’ and ‘uneven’ trade
By Emily Singer | December 12, 2022
Key Points:
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“Former Vice President Mike Pence on Friday criticized President Joe Biden’s deal to bring professional basketball player Brittney Griner home after she was detained for nearly a year in Russia, calling the decision ‘ill-advised.’”
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“Pence made the comment during a Fox News interview, during which he said he never would have agreed to trade Griner for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.”
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“Pence joined a chorus of Republicans who criticized Griner’s release, including former President Donald Trump. Trump called the release of Griner an ‘unpatriotic embarrassment for the USA’ in a post on his Truth Social platform and said the Biden administration should have also brought home former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, who was arrested in 2018 when Trump was in office. But Pence didn’t dispute a claim by former Trump administration official John Bolton that Trump had had the opportunity to trade for Whelan when he was in office but didn’t make the deal.”
Read the full report here.
Published: Dec 12, 2022