Morning Report — Historic swap frees U.S. hostages from Russia

by Alexis Simendinger and Kristina Karisch - 08/02/24 7:01 AM ET

President Biden and Vice President Harris made their way late Thursday to the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews near Washington to welcome Americans who were wrongly imprisoned by Russia and freed as part of the largest prisoner swap negotiated since the Cold War.

For a president who pledged to bring all wrongly detained Americans home and is an outspoken cheerleader for the benefits of U.S. alliances abroad, there was a lasting impression as he watched joyful parents, siblings and friends greet the returnees.

“There’s nothing beyond our capacity when we act together,” Biden told reporters when asked if he had a message for America.

Nevertheless, critics immediately revived a debate about whether negotiating for captive Americans encourages more Americans to be taken hostage. U.S. officials have warned U.S. citizens not to travel to Russia and to depart if in that country.

Biden said early in the day that he had no need to speak directly with Putin.

The prisoner exchange eventually involved 24 individuals and seven countries, including Germany, Poland, Slovenia and Norway. The physical transfer of the Americans for Russians occurred on a tarmac in Ankara, Turkey.

Returned to the U.S. were Wall Street Journal Evan Gershkovich, arrested early in 2023 and convicted by Russia of espionage; former Marine Paul Whelan, imprisoned in Russia for five years; Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, nabbed in Russia while visiting her ailing mother; and Russian opposition activist Vladimir Kara-Murza, who holds a U.S. green card and met Biden when he was a pallbearer at the funeral of the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

The Hill: Americans freed Thursday in a massive U.S.-Russia prisoner exchange.

Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted the release of a high-value Russian Federal Security Bureau assassin named Vadim Krasikov, who killed a Chechen dissident in Berlin and was tried and put behind bars in Germany. Putin, a former KGB operative, had made clear that a U.S.-pressured swap for Krasikov was possible and officials suspected Krasikov may have been Putin’s bodyguard decades ago.

The Hill: Journalist Gershkovich, as part of paperwork Russia had him sign before being freed, added in writing that he requested an interview with Putin.

Biden and Harris exulted in the successful outcome of a nail-biting operation and credited diplomacy, global alliances, skilled intelligence personnel and patience.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz had been willing to help Biden and the United States, according to Biden and a detailed Wall Street Journal account. The chancellor eventually signed off on the release of the Russian intelligence operative. An elaborate agreement and operational plan came together last month. Administration officials told reporters that Harris had privately lobbied Scholz and Slovenian officials for assistance during February’s Munich Security Conference.

“This is an incredible relief for all the family members gathered here,” Biden told reporters, accompanied by some of the relatives of the former hostages gathered at the White House as their loved ones flew across the Atlantic in a private plane.

“And it’s a relief to the friends and colleagues all across the country who’ve been praying for this day for a long time,” the president added with a smile.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan was a go-between with hostages’ families and worked closely with CIA Director William Burns, who was back in Turkey to discuss the swap details last week, as well as U.S. hostage negotiator Roger Carstens.

An emotional Sullivan, briefing reporters at the White House, described years of twists and turns to get the Americans released and the joy of bringing good news to families of the Americans who spent so long in Russian detention. “If you hadn’t had Joe Biden sitting in the Oval Office, I don’t think this would have happened,” he said.

The U.S. wanted to include Russian dissident Alexei Navalny as part of a swap, but he died in an Arctic penal colony this year while serving a 19-year prison sentence, Sullivan added.

Not all the Americans detained in Russia are free. Marc Fogel, a schoolteacher in Moscow, is serving a 14-year sentence in a Russian labor camp on charges of drug smuggling. His family expressed disappointment that Fogel remains imprisoned.

▪ Business Insider: Trump previously said only he could get reporter Gershkovich and U.S. hostages out of Russia and would win their release before he took office a second time.

▪ The Hill: Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance (Ohio), who is 40 years old today, said the homecoming of U.S. hostages Thursday was “a testament to Trump’s strength.”

3 THINGS TO KNOW TODAY

📊The Labor Department today will release its job report for July and analysts expect signs of job security for workers amid a cooling employment picture, which the Federal Reserve is eager to applaud.
🏠 How much are rents going up? See how prices have changed in your area.
🥇U.S. gymnast Simone Biles on Thursday won the individual women’s all-around Olympic gold medal in Paris. She has captured more Olympic medals than any U.S. gymnast in history. U.S. swimmer Katie Ledecky, who won her 13th Olympic medal Thursday, became the most decorated woman in American Olympic history.

LEADING THE DAY

CAMPAIGN POLITICS

MAKING IT OFFICIAL: The Democratic Party began the formal vote to nominate Harris for president Thursday, kicking off a virtual roll call that will cement her status as the party’s candidate heading into November. The outcome of the vote is not in doubt, given that Harris has the support and endorsement of nearly all of the pledged Democratic delegates. Harris must pick a running mate by Aug. 7 to comply with Ohio’s current ballot deadline, but her team is planning to finish the vetting of the VP field and expects her to pick her running mate by Aug. 5 (CBS News).

She is expected to appear with her pick in Pennsylvania next week, kicking off a whirlwind few days of travel that will see her stopping in Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia and Nevada.

Harris’s top choices have some previous relationships with the vice president, which can help while she’s under an expedited timeline, write The Hill’s Brett Samuels and Alex Gangitano. Between her time as attorney general of California, as a U.S. senator, and as vice president, Harris has gotten to know the likes of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. Biden stressed the importance of a good working relationship with a vice president when he selected Harris after he served as former President Obama’s VP, and his aides say Biden and Harris have a strong relationship that Harris wants to recreate with her pick.

Shapiro, one of the candidates on the shortlist, abruptly canceled a three-event fund-raising swing through the Hamptons just days before Harris is expected to make her selection.

House Democrats, meanwhile, are increasingly advocating for Walz, write The Hill’s Mike Lillis and Mychael Schnell. Now the governor of Minnesota, he served in the House for 12 years, rising to the position of chair of the powerful Armed Services Committee before heading home to lead the North Star State. The amiable Walz was not only well-liked on Capitol Hill, but he also had the distinction of being the highest-ranking Army veteran in the history of Congress — a status that endeared him to Pentagon supporters in both parties.

“I like the things that he’s been able to do. I like that he’s from a rural town; I like that he’s got a military background,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), head of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. “So he would be a great choice.”

2024 ROUNDUP

In Tennessee, Rep. Andy Ogles warded off a well-funded challenge from Courtney Johnston in Thursday’s GOP primary. Ogles will now face Democratic nominee Maryam Abolfazli, who was unopposed in her primary.
Harris’s campaign announced on Friday a $310 million fundraising haul in the month of July, bringing its war chest to $377 million.
Does Harris need a Latino campaign? “Neither party has a firm grasp of the ways in which Latino communities are evolving.”
Students involved in pro-Palestinian protests on campuses say they are preparing for round two: “We’ve been working all this summer.”
Democrats interviewed by The Hill suggest Harris must be accessible in public and with the news media, in contrast with Biden, because time in a neck and neck campaign is so short. “I know we’re riding high at the moment but that’s going to end soon and then what?” said one source.
Trump’s performance Wednesday at the National Association of Black Journalists conference prompted some GOP lawmakers to worry that his race-based attacks on opponent Harris could backfire with voters in November.
Leadership skills, the ability to make decisions and honesty top a long list of traits that Americans want most for U.S. presidents, according to a new survey.
As Trump tried to disavow the politically toxic Project 2025, its director, Paul Dans, stepped down. But the plans and massive staffing database that he prepared — to replace thousands of members of the “deep state” with MAGA loyalists — remain.

WHERE AND WHEN

The House and Senate are out until after Labor Day.

The president will head this morning to Wilmington, Del. Biden will receive the President’s Daily Brief in Delaware at noon.

The vice president has no public events.

ZOOM IN

INTERNATIONAL

The leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, said Thursday that its conflict with Israel had entered a new phase after an Israeli strike in Lebanon’s capital, Beirut, this week. Meanwhile Israel’s military said Thursday it confirmed the July death of Mohammed Deif, the head of Hamas’s military wing and one of the architects of the Oct. 7 attack, in a strike on the city of Khan Younis.

The White House is convinced Iran will attack Israel in retaliation for the assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran earlier this week, and is preparing to counter it, Axios reports. But the Biden administration is concerned it may be more difficult to mobilize the same international and regional coalition of countries that defended Israel from Iran’s April attack because Haniyeh’s assassination is in the context of the Israel-Hamas war. During a Thursday call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Biden said the U.S. would “support Israel’s defense against threats,” which would include “new defensive U.S. military deployments” (CNN).

The Washington Post: Who are Hamas’s top leaders? What to know after Haniyeh, Deif killed.

The U.S. government on Thursday announced that it is recognizing opposition candidate Edmundo González as the winner of Venezuela’s presidential election, despite the country’s electoral authority giving the victory to President Nicolás Maduro (The Washington Post).

Maduro, meanwhile, has gone on the offensive after suspicions that his victory in Sunday’s presidential election was rigged. The country has been plunged into turmoil and diplomatic isolation, and Maduro is blaming the unrest on a far-right conspiracy being spearheaded by “perverse and macabre” political foes. Maduro on Thursday castigated Edmundo González, the presidential rival he claims to have beaten, and his adversary’s key backer, the conservative opposition leader María Corina Machado. For three days now, the Biden administration has called on Venezuelan authorities to release the vote tallies across the country to demonstrate Maduro won. But now, it seems they have gone a step further — with the top U.S. diplomat for the region saying outright that Maduro’s opponent won an “overwhelming electoral victory” (The Guardian and ABC News).

ELSEWHERE

COURTS

Trump: A three-judge New York appeals court Thursday rejected Trump’s challenge to a gag order tied to his hush money trial in Manhattan in which a jury found him guilty on 34 criminal counts. Trump’s lawyers on Thursday again asked Judge Juan Merchan, who previously imposed a limited gag order, to recuse himself. The former president’s legal team objects to Merchan’s daughter’s past work for a progressive digital agency, and argues she had ties to Biden and Harris. Merchan says a state ethics advisory committee previously advised he has no conflicts that necessitate recusal.

Abortion: In a blow to anti-abortion Republicans, the Utah Supreme Court on Thursday by a 4-1 ruling upheld a pause of the state’s near-total abortion ban, keeping in place a law that allows abortion up to 18 weeks of pregnancy while litigation continues. Utah’s abortion ban passed in 2020 would prohibit all abortions except in cases of rape, incest or serious risk to the mother’s health, or if two maternal fetal medicine physicians found that the fetus had a lethal defect or severe brain abnormality.

CONGRESS

Senate Republicans on Thursday blocked a bipartisan bill that would boost a tax credit for parents as the GOP and Democrats feud over remarks by Vance about the sway of adults who have children.

The measure co-authored by Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and House Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith (R-Mo.) needed the support of at least 60 senators to overcome Thursday’s initial hurdle. But the vote was 48 to 44 to back a bill that would have raised the child tax credit, ended the fraud-ridden Employee Retention Tax Credit program and reinstated other tax credits for businesses. Vance and seven other senators missed the vote (The Hill).

“Senate Republicans love to talk about how they are the party of family and business. So it’s very odd to see them come out so aggressively against expanding the child tax credit and rewarding business with the [research and development] tax credit,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on the floor.

Sens. Josh Hawley (Mo.), Rick Scott (Fla.) and Markwayne Mullin (Okla.) were the only Republicans to vote to advance the measure. Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.) voted against the bill.

The Hill: Schumer and 34 Democratic colleagues introduced a bill that would strip Trump’s immunity from prosecution, as granted by the Supreme Court.

🎸 In the U.S. Capitol, the House will unveil a statue of Arkansas native Johnny Cash in September, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) announced Thursday. Cash died in 2003.

OPINION

Evan Gershkovich and the hostage takers, by The Wall Street Journal editorial board.
Coming home after being a hostage is hard. I know from experience, by Jason Rezaian, columnist, The Washington Post.

THE CLOSER

And finally … Congratulations to winners of this week’s Morning Report Quiz! We looked for some smart guesses about vice presidents and vice presidential running mates.

Here are the readers who went 4/4: Tom Chabot, Harry Strulovici, Richard E. Baznik, T. Jens Feeley, David Wilcox, Stan Wasser, Lynn Gardner, Mary Anne McEnery, Terry Pflaumer, Felicia Jaeger, John Scanlan, Robert Bradley, David Anderson, Blair Marasco, Peter Sprofera, Chuck Schoenenberger, Rick Schmidtke, Laura Rettaliata, Steve James, John Trombetti, Linda Field, Mark Williamson, Carmine Petracca, Pam Manges, Robert Acker and Savannah Petracca.

The U.S. vice presidency in 1804 stopped going to the runner-up in the presidential election, thanks to a constitutional change.

Former vice presidents Theodore Roosevelt, Chester A. Arthur and Millard Fillmore assumed the top job following the death of presidents. The answer we needed was “all of the above.”

Former Vice President Aaron Burr was arrested for treason.

Unique in history, former vice presidential candidate Thomas Eagleton withdrew from the Democratic ticket after his party held its nominating convention because of health revelations. He was a vice presidential candidate for 18 days. (The former Missouri governor and senator was hospitalized three times for depression in the 1960s, not widely known before his selection to join the George McGovern ticket.)

STAY ENGAGED

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