BREAKING: US has traded Russian arms dealer, Viktor Bout (Merchant of Death) for Brittney Griner

[Holy Unifying Centrist]

Everyone spent the last year demanding that Biden free Brittney Griner and literally demanding he make this exact deal once the media started reporting it as a possibility.

Now that he's actually done it, there's nothing to be gained from continuing to pretend to care about Brittney Griner.  So all the Biden haters have switched overnight to talking about what a lopsided deal it is and how horrible it is that Biden set free the notorious Viktor Bout (a guy you'd never heard of before all this).

Meanwhile all the Do-Something-ers will do what they always do -- completely memory-hole this entire incident now that Biden has actually achieved success, and simply move on to the next "crisis" that offers proof of Biden's ineptitude.

What? I never demanded for a second that Biden make this trade. This is the most r****** trade I’ve ever seen in my life.

[Holy Unifying Centrist]

This is possibly the worst prisoner exchange in history, no wonder Biden waited until after the midterms (and GA runoff) to announce it. So I guess it's now open season on American citizens in even midly hostile territory abroad? Since the precedent has been set that a D-list celebrity can be swapped with a powerful/dangerous arms dealer.

Explain.

International arms trafficker and supplier of African/ME/South American warlords with arsenals worth several billion dollars = basketball player? a human being and American citizen.

FTFY

Maybe she shouldn’t have brought pot to Russia? Or hell, gone to Russia in the first place. No American citizens safety can be guaranteed in Russia when Biden has shown they can be used as bargaining chips.

[Holy Unifying Centrist]

I wish I had the energy to be disgusted by all of the intimation about how Griner is somehow worth less as a human being than others, but unfortunately it no longer surprises me.

I actually agree with this. The Whelan or whatever his name whataboutism is crazy. It doesn't matter what American was in Russia; none of them were worth making this trade for. Your safety cannot be guaranteed if you go into a dumphole country like Russia. They will find a way to imprison you and use you as bargaining chips.

[Holy Unifying Centrist]

Some of you people just need to admit that you would rather have seen her rot in a Russian prison because she happens to be a Black, relatively butch lesbian.

If you are going to make absurd and outrageous claims like this, you need evidence.

Some of the loudest critics of Biden's move here are notorious racists and homophobes, so why should they be given the benefit of the doubt that their objections are not based on bigotry?

Because there are plenty of reasons to criticize this decision? Are we supposed to never criticize anything involving a black woman or a person who is LGBTQ?