New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez slammed the Biden Administration for participating in a prisoner exchange with the Russians – exchanging weed-smuggler WNBA player Brittney Griner for Russian Terrorist Viktor Bout, better known as the “Merchant of Death.”
“This should be a moment of deep reflection for the United States government to recognize we have a serious problem with hostage-taking of Americans. The Russians and other regimes that take American citizens hostage cannot pretend that there is equivalence between the Brittney Griners of the world and people like Viktor Bout, the so-called ‘Merchant of Death,’” Menendez said in a statement.
“Nothing could be further from the truth, and we cannot ignore that releasing Bout back into the world is a deeply disturbing decision,” Menendez added. “We must stop inviting dictatorial and rogue regimes to use Americans overseas as bargaining chips, and we must try to do better at encouraging American citizens against traveling to places like Russia where they are primary targets for this type of unlawful detention.”
