“The View” hosts were quick to call out Republicans’ hypocrisy on Monday, as they discussed former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo comments on the Brittney Griner-Viktor Bout prisoner swap.
After 10 months in a Russian prison, WNBA player Griner was brought back to the U.S. in exchange for the Russian arms dealer. Pompeo made his feelings clear, saying that this swap sets a dangerous precedent and will make it “more likely” celebrities will be taken hostage.
Whoopi Goldberg, however, wasn’t having it and reminded viewers that former President Donald Trump freed 5,000 Taliban members for no reason during his presidency and faced little to no blowback.
“I do want to point out that ‘You Know Who’ traded for no one and gave 5,000 Taliban guys,” she said. “How come no one is bitching about that?”
The rest of the hosts recalled this event, and host Alyssa Farah Griffin, who was working for Trump at the time of this decision, made it clear that she disagreed with the choice.
“Maybe Mike Pompeo forgot about that,” Goldberg mocked.
“I think it’s just the sheer hypocrisy of it,” host Sunny Hostin said. “[Griner] a person, she’s a human being,” Hostin said. “And she’s an American, so its about Americans, not just celebrities.”
Hostin also brought up Paul Whelan, a Marine who was taken in 2018 during Trump’s presidency, and how the former president failed to take action to bring him back to the U.S.
Ana Navarro also pointed out that a lot of the Republicans against Biden’s deal have “very good relationships with Putin.”
“Tucker Carlson is a celebrity in Russia,” Navarro said. “Donald Trump is a celebrity in Russia. They can get on a plane now and get Paul Whelan if they really care so much about [him].”
Farah Griffin noted that this controversy comes with the territory of prisoner swaps.
“What we have to realize with prisoner exchanges, is that you’re always trading a good guy for a bad guy. That’s the nature of it, so there’s always gonig to be dicey repurcussions for things that we do,” Farah Griffin said. “Ther’s no clean way to do this, I’m glad that she’s home. Making this a partisan issue gets nothing accomplished.”
You can watch the hosts’ full thoughts on the matter in the video above.
