and we most certainly did when i was in the obama administration, in this particular instance, i think it was right to take the deal because if you didn t there would have been no deal. it wasn t like there was a better option. of course, we would rush for all americans, paul whelan, mark fogle to be part of this deal. free innocent americans for criminal, but that wasn t a deal on the table. i think those are very hall hard call but they made the right decision. the timing of this is lost on no one, you least of all, griner was arrested weeks before russia invaded ukraine and i wonder how that then complicated all of this? it s a great question, i don t know the answer to that, i know i sense, i should be careful here, i haven t talked to vladimir putin about this but i sense that when they picked her up, they knew they had an asset and that is the way they think about these things that might be trade-able for viktor bout. the other trades that were made
on a national level but i am concerned that the rest of the country has moved on for the midterms. it s like, well, we control the senate now, we being the democrats, everything will be fined, and that they lose sight of the fact that trans kids are really struggling and suffering, especially here in texas. we will not lose our son. worst-case scenario, we pack up in the middle of night and i talked to the other states as quickly as we can, but we could lose everything. again, we could be internally displaced americans right here in the united states of america in 2022, and we know several families of trans kids who have already left the state, trying to avoid the trauma of being investigated in the first place. it s really important that your viewers pay attention to this because if they are not coming for your kid, now they will, they absolutely will because if we don t stop them, if we don t stop attacks against trans kid, they ll be another target and another target and another
back on u.s. soil and being examined at a medical facility incident tonya. after being detained in russia for ten months, griner was sentenced to nine years and a russian penal colony for possessing trace amounts of cannabis oil in her luggage. the biden administration did a prisoner swap for griner exchanging her for russians arm dealer victor bout. food is known as the merchant of death trafficking weapons to terrorist groups. there are concerns the swaps what sets a precedent for more americans to be the griner boot exchange reflects the high price u.s. presidents have historically paid to win freedom for american citizens or face the consequences. they can cut a sweetheart deal to win freedom for their own nationals convicted of criminal activity or espionage if they abduct americans. the public inevitably blames a
we are in additional priority here but so many other folks trans kids are even worse, lower caste or a trans person of color. they have even worse than we do. i think as a privilege to be here and stand up for what is right. i think at this in historical terms, i think it did not to doesn t future, we ll look back on this and not only will we have prevailed in this fight, americans at the pitcher will say that that was a shameful chapter in our history. the kids in this generation who are standing up were courageous. amber, there are a lot of reasons i wanted to talk to you. but among the reason, part of the subtext of the pc route was that there were a lot of people watch the results roll in on election night, and there were some who felt that there was a seismic shift and that the work was done. i think part of what you are trying to remind us of in your case, it happens to be specifically about trans kids,
the president. americans linger in captivity joining us now, and b c michael mcfaul. ambassador, thank you for being with us. i have a lot of questions. first, i want to talk about victor can you expect explain why viktor bout was so personal for putin? viktor bout with an arms control dealer all over the world, getting arms to lots of bad characters, lots of governments, lots of bad movements all over the world. if you look at his biography on his wikipedia page, you can see that he studied ad institutions and the soviet union, where typically kgb agents also study. so, he is close to that world. that world of vladimir putin. remember, putin was a kgb agent himself. i can tell you from personal experience, when i was the ambassador to russia, that the russian government, mr. putin s government, has been focused