paul whelan s brother that you played. he understands that this was absolutely the right thing to do. it s a great day. we re going to continue to work to make sure all americans that are unlawfully detained overseas comes home. senator kelly, we appreciate you coming on the program. thank you so much. i want to bring in ken dilanian, who covers justice and intelligence for nbc news. and evelyn farther cuss is executive director of the mccain institute. mixed emotions. brittney griner is free, that s amazing. paul whelan is not. a senior official told nbc news that the russians took whelan off the table telling the u.s. the choice was either one or none. can you give us unsights into how the negotiations go and how tough these kinds of decisions are? yeah, it sounds like from the
whelan going from here? well, we have tried. my foundation for four years to get whelan out. and somehow it always falls short. we tried it during the trump administration early on in the biden administration, and it seems at the very end, possibly because of the espionage charge, because he is a marine, because he is wrongfully detained, the russians hold on to him at the very end. and this is what happened again. but that doesn t mean that there isn t a possibility that we can get him out. i think we can. i think that the conditions are good. the good news is we got this other marine out about four months ago. his last name is reed. he was a young man who was not treated properly. now brittney griner, and now the next is whelan, despite the
it s a really awkward position for the u.s. government to be in. they want to bring home americans and it s not just paul. there are americans being held in china. there s lots of americans who are in similar positions, and each one of them requires something unique. i m not sure that america always has that cob concession available to bring those people home. representative stevens from michigan is whelan s congresswoman and co-chair of the new american hostage task force in the house. thank you for joining us. it s remarkable to me in a situation like this how gracious the family is being. i know this must be heartbreaking. they are happy for brittney griner. but they have been waiting so long. have you had a chance to talk to or be in touch with paul whelan s family and how are they doing? i have spoken to the family.