congressman, congressman mccall, leader mccarthy, congressman castro, and so many others who worked together in bipartisan member to bring trevor home. finally we stand proudly with the weiland family and the other families of wrongfully detained americans still waiting for their own release moment. we will continue to advocate for the rapid release of hostages and detainees using all tools available to the united states government. again, i m reading that statement for the very first time, seeing it along with all of you. the reed family thanking leaders of both parties, especially president biden for the release of their son. let s go to cnn chief international correspondent jim sciutto in ukraine. jim, this has got to be such a relief for the reed family. no question. listen, start with the family, right, here is someone who has been in russia for some three years now, this altercation which led to his imprisonment in 2019, imprisonment in 2020, and
side every step of the way and would not be here without today without his help. aside from our own family, no one worked harder or contributed more than john to bring trevor home. we re also grateful to montel williams for his support for allowing john to spend so much time on trevor s case. first and foremost we would like to thank president biden for his kindness, consideration and to bring trevor home. the president s actions may have saved trevor s life. we would like to thank ambassador john sullivan and the moscow embassy staff for believing in trevor s innocence and their zealous advocacy. similarly, we would like to thank nsa s jake sullivan, alexander miller, and victoria bonacerra. in particular, we want to thank roger carson, fletcher shown, steven gillom and others. we can t say enough about the importance of the work they do every day for hostages and wrongfully detainees. we would like to thank our
modems ago, making it clear that while he is very glad that trevor reed is now able to return home to his family, that this was a complicated and not easy decision. he says the negotiations that allowed us to bring trevor home required difficult decision that we do not take lightly. obviously, looming over all of this is the ongoing conflict in ukraine and russia and this war and u.s. officials are now making clear that this comes as, of course, we heard u.s. officials saying recently, they would like to see the russian military weaken. now, u.s. officials are saying that what happened with trevor reed and his release, that is not going to change the u.s. posture when it comes to the war if you crane. john. mj, thanks so much. let s get some important perspective from the former russian chief of operations and cnn correspondent, mathew chance. for your years of experience of covering putin, for this to
into the fourth hour of morning joe. members of the u.s. embassy are back in ukraine for the first time in two months. they tweeted out these pictures from lviv. it s the first step ahead of more regular travel as they prepare to open the embassy in kyiv in the coming weeks, which is a really big symbolic move. and news that just broke on our air last hour, the white house says u.s. marine corps veteran trevor reed has been released from a russian prison and is on his way back to the united states. u.s. and russian officials say that reed s release was part of a prisoner swap in exchange for a convicted drug trafficker serving time in connecticut. in a statement, president biden said, quote, the negotiations that allowed us to bring trevor home required difficult
president went on to thank the government officials and diplomatic officials who helped secure the release of trevor reed, and he importantly noted the negotiations that allowed us to bring trevor home required difficult decisions that i do not take lightly. his safe return is a testament to the priority my administration places on bringing home americans held hostage and wrongfully detained abroad. we won t stop until paul whelan and others join trevor in the loving arms of family and friends. the president making clear that they still have this utmost priority to try to return american hostages or detainees held abroad back to the united states. now, the family of trevor reed met here at the white house, with president biden, at the end of march, after they had been protesting outside. and you heard joey reed, trevor s father, describe that meeting as a tipping point, they believe that that helped push president biden to get the release of their son trevor