The Media Research Center’s attacks on Brittney Griner for failing to be white, heterosexual and a right-wing bot — and, thus, unworthy of being traded in a prisoner swap from her trumped-up jail sentence in Russia — took a little detour when the subject of a Donald Trump prisoner exchange was brought up.
Nicholas Fondacaro began a Dec. 12 post still whining that Griner was freed and criminal ex-Marine Paul Whelan was not, complaining that “The View” co-host and “faux Republican Ana Navarro” said that “Fox News anchors Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity were such good buddies with dictator Vladimir Putin they could just fly into Russia and free Paul Whelan, the Marine still imprisoned on trumped-up espionage charges” and added that they “have very good relationships with Putin. Tucker Carlson’s a celebrity in Russia.” Fondacaro didn’t dispute the accuracy of Navarro’s statement; instead, he huffed:
The show was kicked off with disinformation as Goldberg began by claiming the Trump administration had released 5,000 Taliban fighters in exchange “for no one” in return. But according to The Washington Post, the deal entailed “The United States would release 5,000 Taliban prisoners; the Taliban would release 1,000 of its prisoners” (A.K.A. our Afghan allies).
Fondacaro did not comment on the highly unbalance nature of that transaction — at least Griner for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout was a one-to-one swap.
The next day, Tim Graham similarly complained that the highly imbalanced 5-for-1 swap was portrayed as “nothing” — to the point that he was forced to cite hated fact-checker Snopes to back him up:
On Monday, the “independent fact-checkers” at Snopes.com explored “Did the Trump Admin Agree to Free 5,000 Taliban Prisoners?” They ruled this was “True.” But they were not evaluating MSNBC morning host Joe Scarborough, who repeatedly made the false statement on Friday and Monday that Trump received “nothing in exchange.”
[…]In addition, Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at that time called the agreement “an important initial step toward advancing security and stability in Afghanistan,” adding that, “many significant additional steps remain to achieve comprehensive and enduring peace.”
Snopes cited a Congressional Research Service report that said, “The prisoner exchange was completed in early September 2020, removing the main obstacle to intra-Afghan talks. Talks between the two sides continue but have not made substantial progress and remain complicated by a number of factors.” Somehow, Liles thought there was a loophole in there. Despite the clear phrasing “the prisoner exchange was completed,” he suggested “This indicated that the Taliban prisoners were released without both sides agreeing to terms.”
But don’t let the concept of a completed “prisoner exchange” disturb Scarborough! He was on a roll. In reacting to criticism of the Griner swap, we counted ten separate denunciations of Trump letting Taliban terrorists go for nothing on Friday and Monday:
Like Fondacaro, Graham is not about to admit that a 5-for-1 swap could be described as effectively “nothing,” let alone defend the imbalanced transaction in the face of the one-for-one Griner-Bout swap.