The media wanted a fight over one word. President Trump gave them a lesson in getting Americans home. Asked at Wednesday’s White House roundtable whether he agreed with Special Envoy Steve Witkoff calling Vladimir Putin a “humanitarian,” the President put the focus where it belongs: on Stephen Hubbard, the American who is finally free.
“Well, I guess you could say for that particular purpose, for the purpose of allowing a man who was thinking he was going to be in prison for life out,” Trump said. “We’re negotiating with Russia to stop the war with Ukraine.”
The President said the critics who demanded he blow up the talks never understood what was at stake. “Let’s say we did what a lot of stupid people wanted me to do, a lot of really stupid people. I took a lot of heat,” Trump said. “Well, I was in the midst of getting Stephen out of Russia. And if we did what these foolish people wanted me to do, he wouldn’t be coming out right now. He’d be in there for another 20 years.” He added that Iran’s military is “completely gone” and that Russia and China have stayed largely out of that fight.
Vice President JD Vance delivered the same message in Ohio. “I care much less about what Steve said and about the fact that he is bringing an American hostage home to his family,” Vance said at his Fraud Task Force press conference. “We should all be celebrating that, not be complaining about what Steve Witkoff said in order to get it done.”
The White House kept up the fight overnight. White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said what is “embarrassing and outrageous” is outlets like CBS News “picking apart” Witkoff’s comments celebrating the release of a 74-year-old American imprisoned in Russia for over four years. Rapid Response 47 asked whether the Special Envoy should have “insulted the man, imperiled the release of an American citizen, and torched any possibility of finally resolving a war,” and answered: “This is why you’re not a negotiator.”
