'The hypocrisy is just absolutely insane': Morning Joe slams GOP 'idiots' for criticizing Brittney Griner release

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough bashed Donald Trump and other Republicans for their "absolutely insane" hypocrisy on the prisoner swap that returned WNBA star Brittney Griner from a Russian penal colony.

GOP lawmakers and conservative media attacked President Joe Biden for agreeing to free Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout for Griner, who had been convicted of possessing cannabis oil, and not former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, who was convicted of spying. The "Morning Joe" host ripped their complaints.

"The hypocrisy is just absolutely insane," Scarborough said. "I mean, the same Republicans that were criticizing Joe Biden for not bringing Paul Whelan home failed to place blame on the man who was actually in the White House when Whelan was arrested illegally, jailed illegally. Why didn't Donald Trump do anything in 2018 to get Paul Whelan home? Why didn't he do anything in 2019 to get Paul Whelan home? Why didn't Donald Trump do anything in 2020 to get Paul Whelan home? He was praising Vladimir Putin the entire time. Why not actually call his buddy and ask him to release an American? I guess because he just didn't give a damn."

"Despite celebrating the releases of other Americans imprisoned while he was in office, Donald Trump didn't publicly utter Whelan's name even once as president," Scarborough continued. "This is according to a review of public remarks and tweets, carried out by The Independent. Trump clearly had the power to negotiate a prisoner swap deal, however, never was this evident in 2020, when he negotiated with, get this, not with his friend Putin to get Paul Whelan home. He didn't give a damn that Putin arrested Whelan and let him rot in jail. Instead, no, he was negotiating with the Taliban, and he freed up 5,000 Taliban terrorists. What did he get in exchange? Nothing. He got nothing in exchange and he wanted to actually invite the Taliban, the people who actually allowed the 9/11 attacks to happen, to be launched from their country, he invited them on Sept. 11 to Camp David."

"When these idiots, and they are total idiots, when these idiots going around talking about Joe Biden being a bad negotiator, they are literally talking in defense of with Donald Trump -- the biggest loser, the worst negotiator we have ever had," Scarborough added. "He falls in love with dictators in North Korea, he completely kowtows to Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, and he doesn't even give a damn about Paul Whelan, lets him rot in jail for three years while Biden and [secretary of state Tony] Blinken and this administration are working their tails off to try to get him home."

Watch the segment below or at this link.

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