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today my family is whole but as you are all aware there are so many other families who are not. this was not a choice of which northern bring home. we brought home trevor reed whether we had a chance earlier this year. sadly, for totally illegitimate reasons russia is treating paul s case different than brittney s. the government is behind the rogue nations taking americans hostage. we need to take the next step is when they have someone like paul who they wrongfully deneighbor a country like russia that they have a plan for how they will get a concession. bret: paul whelan is still in russia tonight. brittney griner is on the way back to the u.s., which is great thing but the trade is getting partly because of the person the u.s. gave back to russia viktor ....
Nationals, just pick up an american, trumped up charges and we will cut a deal with you. going to create more hostage taking. bret: marie, in your old job, you were right in the middle of a lot of this. very tough decisions when you are talking about americans overseas. when viktor bout is captured in 2010 doj puts out this statement. bout was convicted today in 2011 of conspiring to kill u.s. nationals, conspiring to kill u.s. officers and employees, conspiring to acquire and use anti-aircraft missiles and provide material support to designated terrorist organization. here is peter doocy at the white house today. while did russia get such a better deal? here were our choices. our choices was brittney or no one at all. bringing home one american or no american at all. how can you say he is going to do everything that he can if he is just said a few days ago is he not going to call vladimir putin until further notice? we were able to do this through, um, through different chan ....
We don t want to send this signal of weakness that incentivize hostage-taking going forward. bret: here is what the administration is saying in the way of john kirby from the white house. it was a tough decision, but it was a better decision than doing nothing because it was either get britny out using mr. bout or get nobody out. better to have brittney griner soon on american soil rather than spending years and years in prison for a crime she didn t commit. does it not encourage for be abductions and taking prisons than use them to get back. in some ways this ship has ng americans in return to get somebody else back some oother concession. this is part plaintiff putin s playbook. bret: so that s their answer, congressman. well, i think the white house is offering a false choice. ....
The reality is if you are negotiating from a position of strength, i got believe that it s possible we could have gotten both americans. it s also not just griner, whelan vs. viktor bout, we are talking about the impact on other americans in other countries, other hostages that have been taken. we are talking about the impact on entire foreign policy. i don t accept that logic from john kirby. again, i m happy for brittney griner, i m happy for her family. we have to consider the overall impact on our standing in the world. bret: all right. i want to bring to you china and the new job you are taking heading up this committee. what are you looking to accomplish with that in the new republican congress? well, the select committee on china, which is going to be a signature initiative for speaker-elect kevin mccarthy a lot of what we can do is explain the stakes to the american people, explain why we need to understand who we re dealing with in the form of the chinese communist party a ....