On Thursday evening, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris stood on the tarmac at Andrews Air Force Base and greeted journalists Evan Gershkovich and Alsu Kurmasheva and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan after their release from Russian prison in a historic prisoner swap.
Gershkovich, who’d been held by Russia since March 2023, repeatedly embraced Biden and Harris before running to meet his mother. Biden removed the American flag pin from his lapel and fixed it to Whelan’s clothing. Meanwhile, Kurmasheva, held since October 2023, was immediately swarmed by her two young daughters. After meeting with his family, Gershkovich walked over to reporters and expressed his thanks not only for his own release but for the freedom of Russian political prisoners who were being held by dictator Vladimir Putin’s repressive regime.
“There’s one thing I would like to say,” Gershkovich said. “It was great to get on that bus today and see not just Americans and Germans but Russian political prisoners.” He expressed how he had spent his time among prisoners held for their opposition to Putin’s regime and his hope that more of them would be freed.
It was a touching, uplifting, and glorious moment. And it was the result of complex diplomatic exchanges that both Biden and Harris had worked for literal years to achieve.
Naturally, Donald Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, want to make this story all about Trump.
