he was a teacher at the high school that my kids went to when i was a u.s. ambassador. he was wrongly and i think, arrested for similar charges like brittney griner. i hope that he also will get consideration if indeed there is a way to begin a process of negotiations to get these americans back. secretary of state antony blinken did say paul whelan and all other americans who we believe are wrongly detained. there is a list. monica was talking about john kirby saying we re going to stay vigilant of viktor bout. he s known as the merchant of death. how much more dangerous is our world with viktor bout back in it and no longer behind bars? he s a real criminal. he s a he was arrested when i worked at the white house. it was a fantastic operation that we got him in jail.
The people running Joe Biden's presidency have proven again what a weak, disgraceful, America-last gaggle of pathetic losers they are, demonstrating on a global stage that our country is an [.]
merchant of death, for someone who is as significant as viktor bout. john kirby was asked about it on cnn. it just became ready apparent to the president and entire team it was either make this exchange, get one back and the only one they were willing to trade was brittney for mr. bout or get none and leave her there and i can think we all would agree that no not even one more day in a penal colony for brittney was a good outcome. and so griner remains in san antonio, how long she stays there according to the state department is up to her and her family, ana. at this point what is the outlook for paul whelan? what more could russia want? we have heard directly from paul whelan. he spoke exclusively to our colleague. he is frustrated, worried. says there is a chance he may never come home but the u.s. will continue to try to find a way to bring him home, to continue those conversations with the russians.
possible and that this creates a certain atmosphere where context can continue. what do you think we re going to see here with hopefully the future release of paul whelan? well, president putin s comments were encouraging. that was surprising to me. that suggests that there are other possible deals to be made as you were just discussing. it s hard to imagine who is who would be the right fit for somebody given that viktor bout was the best person we had to trade. by the way, i think the trade was a hard call, but the right call. it s better to have somebody out and in diplomacy. i ve negotiated with the russians over similar kinds of issues when i was in the government. you get to a point in a negotiation and then you got to decide, do i take the deal or walk away. they chose to take this deal and i think it was the right one. and i hope it leads to momentum for others. first and foremost, paul whelan, but there s another american that i think should get more attention. mark fogle.
national security assessment for viktor bout because his release, the fact that he s still a fairly young arms dealer is something they had to consider here before making this deal and here s a little bit more from national security spokesman john kirby on that calculation. we did an assessment before we made this trade. a national security assessment which we normally do. that was done in this case. we believe that we re going to be able to continue to protect and defend national security interests whether it s from a man like mr. bout or anybody else that might threaten it. it s going to be a decision for mr. bout to make. but we re going to make sure we stay vigilant. that s another big part of this process as they continue. and brittney griner home before the holidays, a huge goal for president biden, but he says he has not forgotten the other americans detained around the world. i want to ask you about issues that monica brought up then. first, we heard from vladimir putin t