and physically. we can get through this crisis. we can get through together, supporting one another, so that, hopefully, we can prevent something like this from ever happening again. >> to learn more about the help -- to nominate you think who should be a cnn hero, go to cnnheroes.com right now. thank you for watching, our coverage continues. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> he was a marine who had been stationed in hotspots around the world, but it was not until he went on vacation in moscow that veteran trevor reed then only 28 years old was thrust into the most dangerous experience of his life. i'm jake tapper, and in this hour, you we'll hear trevor

describing it all. a kafkaesque trial, his defiance, his struggles, and you will hear from his family who fought to get him home. he is so thankful for his return. they've made it a mission to raise awareness of the scores of other americans being unjustly detained around the world. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> so, you are in a russian prison for 985 days? >> yes. >> it's now been three weeks since you've been back in united states? how are you doing? >> i'm doing well. i feel better every day that i am here. >> have you been able to fully grasp that you are free? >> no. so, you know, the last couple of days, it has been more real to me. there is a time where you don't

accept that at all, that you are back. you can't understand you are actually free. >> free. a reality that was almost unthinkable to this american son, brother, and former marine just a short time ago. but today, after enduring a hell if you have lived to tell about, trevor reed is back on u.s. soil, unafraid, and sharing his story for the first time. >> you are a marine, one of your jobs, literally, in the past, was to guard and protect the president of the united states. could you ever have imagined that you would depend upon the president of the united states to rescue you? >> no. i at not one time ever consider that. >> you're guarded and protected president obama. i'm sure you saw his vice president running around. >> absolutely. president biden was there, as the vice president at that time. >> how do you look at his role

in your release? >> he is the person who held the single most important role in that decision made by the president of the united states. i think president biden made the right one. >> after three years in russian custody, a period in which trump or not only became fluent in russian, but picked up a slight accent. he is back in texas. >> biden's decision rescued this former boy scout from the grips of a regime that he has come to believe it is one of the most evil on earth. >> you have this view like i did when i went there. russia is them being, yeah, they've got a bad government, but it's like, you know, maybe as putin's people, but the whole government isn't. from being there, inside, and seeing the government from the inside, how that works you

realize the problem is much bigger than that. they have absolutely no value of human life. that apathy permeates every level of the russian government. that trickles down from the very top to the lowest level. prison guard inside of their government, all of their police officers, all of their fsb, everyone who works for that government has absolutely no empathy for other humans. they are completely desensitized to that. that government is really, sincerely evil. from the top to the bottom, at all levels. there is no reason why any americans should travel to russia, for anything, ever. >> for reed, the warning signs were there. in december, 2018, a few months before he flew to moscow, hello marine paul wheeler had been wrongly detained by the russians on unsubstantiated

charges of espionage. >> i knew about that. because of paul whelan's case, i almost did not travel to russia. this is going to sound stupid, because of what happened, but i had already bought a ticket. i was like, i don't want to pay that 200 bucks to change my ticket. at that same time, i thought, okay, they've clearly taken this marine hostage. there is absolutely no way they are going to do that a second time. >> in the summer of 2019, reed ignored his instincts, and followed his heart to moscow. followed his hearthe planned tor with his girlfriend of three years, a russian lawyer named leana. >> where did you meet her to begin with? >> i met her online, on a dating app. >> you would visitor, she visit you? >> she would come to the u.s. and visit me, i went to russia

once to see her and meet her family. i didn't know russian at all, and that's one of the reasons why i decided to start studying russian, to be able to communicate with her family. >> on august 15th, 2019, the young couple attended a party, and after an evening of drinking vodka, trevor blacked out, became ill on the side of the road. police arrived on the scene, took trevor back to the station lobby to dry out. >> i don't remember anything until the next morning. i woke up in a police station, i wasn't in a cell. i asked the duty officer there, like, what happened? she said, you drink too much, it's russian vodka, we will teach you how to drink later. she said, so, you can leave. >> no handcuffs, no arrest. trevor was free to go. >> so, i waited about ten

minutes for leana to get there. in that ten minutes, the shift changed at the police station. the new officers came in with new police chief. you saw i was speaking english with the duty there, and he asked, like, why is this american here? after three minutes, they came back and told me i could not leave. so, i did try to ask them why. they wouldn't answer me. fsb shut up ten minutes after that, so i almost immediately -- >> it's a successor organization to the kgb? >> yes, so, when lina did get there, you know, she said what crime are you charging him with? they said, he assaulted a police officer here tonight in the police station. she said, are you stupid? i was with him at night in the

police station, he didn't assault anybody. she said, you know, i'm a lawyer, i want your cameras. after that they completely stop talking to us. they realize they had 40 security cameras there, and trying to say all 40 cameras did not work was probably not going to go. it ended up changing that story to say that i fought police in the police car on the way to the police station. >> that never happened? >> my defense team did end up getting video from the road where this had supposedly happened, and they were able to prove none of that happened. >> when lina you, she noticed what you had appeared to be injuries? >> yes, and she said, you know, your nose has a black line across it, you've got bruises on the back of your head, and i was limping, and she went up and asked them, did you beat him? they said no, no, and she said

i want to see your cameras. they refused to show those cameras that whole time. >> just to be clear, you were drunk, essentially passed out, and they beat you while you were just lying down as a body? >> apparently. and after that, you know, my lawyer shut up. he was walking back and forth, sweating, he's read. i said, is there a problem? he said, they called the rector of fsb. i said, the director of fsb in this region? and he said, the director of fsb in russia. so, i said, do they normally do that? he said, no, i think you will have a political issue. >> that is where trevor reed's nightmare truly began. after what would become, by most accounts, a yearlong sham of a trial, trevor was

sentenced to nine years in prison. a judgment usually reserved for those who have committed murder. it was then trevor's focus shifted from being proven innocent to surviving. >> any person is brutal. russian presents are notoriously awful and tough. did you have a strategy for surviving? >> i did. i tried to compartmentalize and focus, not on being in prison, kind of, you know, distract myself, think about future plans, but university i was going to go to, but plans i was going to have with my family. >> did you have confidence you were going to get out? >> no, i didn't. a lot of people are not going to like what i'm going to say about this, but i kind of viewed they're having hope as

being a weakness. i did not want to have that hope of me being released somehow, and have that taken from me. >> you denied yourself hope? >> yes. i denied myself that. i wouldn't let myself hope. >> it was the worst conditions you've had, that you experience during that time? >> the psychiatric treatment facility. i was with seven other prisoners in the cell. they all had severe, serious psychological health issues. over 50% of them in that cell were in there for murder, were like multiple murders, sexual assault and murder. it was really disturbed individuals. inside of that cell, you know, that was not a good place. there is blood all over the walls there. prisoners had killed themselves or killed other prisoners, or attempted to do that.

the toilet is just a hole in the floor, and there is, you know, crap everywhere, all over the floor, on the walls. there are people in there that walk around that look like zombies. >> are you afraid for your life? >> i mean, i did not sleep there for a couple of days. i was too worried about who was in the cell with me to actually sleep. >> he thought they might kill you? >> yes. i thought that was a possibility. actually, i want to knock on the door to get the letter once, and the whole of the prisoners in the cell yelled at me, don't knock on the door. they said, if you knock on the door, they will say that you are violent and they will come in and hold you down, and hit you with a sedative and turn you into a zombie. so, that was a scary situation. i thought they were going to try to, you know, basically

disable me from fighting their court process. >> it sounds like a horror movie. >> that's what it was like. not only because of the physical, you know, conditions, the so, the prisoners, that part is scary and itself. the scarier part is you being under this threat of them chemically saving you. my whole goal there was to fight and resist that whole time. someone uses, you know, chemicals to disable, you how can you fight? that was the scariest part to me, being helpless. >> coming up, that was tough. the painful journey home. >> you didn't want to go without him?

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so, i'm glad you something and if you could read it -- this is your verbatim transfer from the court. >> sure. >> this isn't my last words, whatever i was being sentenced. >> i understand in this country pleading guilty mainly to having a shorter sentence but i think it would be unethical and immoral to plead guilty to a crime that i truly did not

commit. >> if i'm going to be given a prison sentence, i would rather stay in prison -- a liar and a coward. >> it's a remarkable thing to tell the -- >> that's truly what i believe. >> when the sentence came down, did you turn to your dad? did you turn to lehman? >> well, i knew what was written on that sentence before the judge actually started reading. i had looked over at my dad, at that point and shook my headed him. -- when i read off the sentence, nine years, i was not shocked by that, but lino did have a reaction. she said, are you kidding me? nine years in prison? she started crying. they physically removed from the courtroom. >> easy. >> in russia, once you're

convicted, you're sent to a forced labor camp. i was not going to work ethically. i could not do that. it was like, you kidnapped me, you convicted me and gave me the biggest punishment that you've ever handed out under this criminal article. the -- venue semi to a force labor cabin you expect me to go in there and work and produce things for the same government whose kidnapping americans. >> did you do any work at all? >> no. absolutely not. i said i'm not going to work, they said they were gonna punish me. i said this not going to change anything. they immediately started putting me into solitary confinement. >> at the labor camp, he would spend nearly seven out of his nine months in solitary confinement. disturbing is the punishment was, trevor had a goal with his resistance. >> i hope that i would be such a problem for them that in the

future, when they consider taking americans hostage, they would think, is it worth it? >> did you ever come close to hitting a breaking point? >> no. to be honest with you, the longer i was in there -- not allowing them to break me. that was really one of the main things that i held on to that got me through that, knowing that no matter how long i was going to be there, they were never going to break me. maybe i would've died, but psychologically, they never would've broken me. >> they didn't break him. physically, trevor's body was paying the price. what did you look like? how fit were you and how strong we? what did you weigh when this all started? >> when i went to prison, i weighed 175 pounds and i probably had about six or 7% body fat. when i came back from russia, i

wait 131. i lost 45 pounds there. >> 45 pounds? >> yeah. >> i had lost a lot of weight already by that point just because of the diet. it's extremely poor. it's probably exactly what they gave prisoners to eat in the middle ages, in europe. >> what is it? what do they serve you? >> at dinner, you have either cabbage or potatoes and then fish of some type. there's three types of course they give you. one cycle paddy, which is difficult to eat because of the bones inside. the other type is baked fish, so the second full fish, about the size. the last one is salt fish, which isn't like a salted fish that's dried out or anything. it's like a fish that they put

in salt water to try and kill the parasites, i guess. >> not even the feral cats at the camp need to fish. >> it sounds like the depth of human misery. >> what went through your mind during this period? some pretty dark thoughts must've entered it. >> i tried to distract myself. if you're able to read and to escape into a different world, and leave your own world for a little while, that can psychologically help you. >> soon, the russians cut off the only escape trevor had, refusing to provide books in his native language. >> which is the last straw, kind of, that lead me into the first hunger strike. after the first hunger strike, i started to get sick. i really, at that point, was consistently sick until i left. i started to cough up blood. i coughed up that blood for a

period of about three and a half months every day, multiple times a day. they would refuse to send me to the hospital. which is the reason why went on the second hunger strike, so that they would give me medical attention. e medica>> for their part, the s say he was sent to a medical facility at the end of the hunger strike, and his health was satisfactory. that, according to trevor, is a lie. back home, the reed family grew increasingly worried. >> i knew from day one, as soon as this happened, my family would never stop fighting for me. i never doubted that. i knew that if there was a way, my family would find that. >> he's being held in a russian prison. >> trevor is right. as he fought against his wrongful conviction, and cool conditions in russia, the reed family was waging their own battle to bring him home. >> i spoke whichever's family. his former -- mother, paula, and his sister,

taylor, about their struggle to bring trevor home. >> joey, people may not know this, but you literally move to russia. you move to moscow. >> the i-, there is a lot of frustrations that first year. we had frustrations with the embassy after one year of him being wrongfully detained, and they started speaking for him and they've been wonderful ever since. for sure was a struggle. >> when he wasn't in russian, joey reid was with his family, stateside, as they tried desperately to get attention for the suns case. >> you talked about some people in the trump and biden administrations, and congress, that have been helpful, but i know there's also people that weren't. >> i would always try to say to them or their stem or, would if this was your child? when if your child was there? it was even more frustrating because in the back of my mind -- the child wouldn't have been there that long. the child had been home. >> the reed family believe

their best bet to get trevor home was a prisoner swap. >> the russians have been pretty clear from the beginning. >> we heard rumors that after paul whelan was taken, they wanted to trade for him. hey, it's russia, you're not gonna leverage them into a couple -- >> the family was convinced that if they could meet biden face to face, he would act on their son's behalf. >> you hear the president biden is coming to texas. one did you decide that you needed to get his attention, and why? >> we knew that he's going to be so close, season for, with 4:45 minutes away. there's not any way that somebody could keep us from going. we waited until the motorcade came by and that's when he saw me and that's what started everything. >> later that day, paula received a call. my >> phone rang. it said, the white house. i said, oh my gosh. the white house is calling you,

and it's nine or contactless. i answered it -- we put on speakerphone, so all three of us could hear it. he talked to us, he said some nice things. he said, when he got back to d.c., he would have somebody set up a meeting for us to talk to him at the white house. >> 21 days past and still no meeting. so, joey and paula reid traveled to the nation's capital. >> that's when we went to d.c., on march 30th. that's when we started protesting. >> we're hoping he'll see us do you. >> when we were out there having the press conference, afterwards, we heard kaitlan collins. she's the one that said -- >> mister president, water here in washington, they say you promised a meeting. >> i'm gonna see if i can get to see them. they're good people. we're trying to work that out. >> then you said today, and then we got the call. that's our kaitlan. [laughs] >> and you got the meeting? >> we did. >> hours later, they were in the oval office, with the

president of the united states. >> he listened intently to everything we have to say, until we were through talking. we couldn't have asked for more. he was really great. >> taylor, do you think that president biden finally was confronted with the humanity, the reality, that this isn't just people in the paper. i'm eating them. he said, just get this done. what do you think? >> i know, better than most people, exactly how my parents can be so i'd imagine, at some point, he was sick of hearing about it. just do, and get it over with. so they could stop harassing us. [laughs] >> coming up -- the prisoner swap straight out of hollywood. >> i said, we have a man there, in america. american jet will fly here, you will cross each other on the runway and get in your own plane. >> when you told me that, i was

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before, but once that happened, i was like, okay, there's no way that i'm ever getting out of here. >> my mom and i both started having horrible nightmares. night terrors, sleeper ulises. i sincerely didn't think i was going to see him again. >> really? >> he called one day and said, mom, i'm not sleeping. look -- i think it's to be expected, this is a really hard time. she said, no, i'm really having horrible dreams. i said, i am too. look >> thankfully, those dreams never became reality. >> in the morning, they pick me up from the president. they put me on the plane. did >> you know where you are going? >> to fsb security team, --

are we going to turkey? they're like, yeah. i thought -- the u.s. embassy in turkey was going to pick me up. i had no idea what's going on. these vans were driving back and forth to the jet on the runway, and i said, maybe that's the -- fsb was like, no. i was like, okay. another van would come and i said, maybe that's the embassy. they said, no. i said, how do you know that's not them? they said, we have a man there in america. american jet will fly here, he will land next to us. you will leave the plane, he will leave the plane, you will cross each other on the runway and get in your own plane. and when you told me that, i was like, no. this guy has to be screwing with me. i was like, really? he said, yes. it's pretty cool, ha?

[laughs] >> he said, do you feel cool? i said, i don't know. he said, you should because this plane cost a boatload of money. he said they would never fly on these planes. >> at this point, where you allow yourself to feel hope? >> i was still avoiding that. [laughs] but, it was difficult. [laughs] >> an american finally did show up. that was the top diplomat with -- the special president angel envoy for hostage affairs. >> colonel karsten's, roger questions from speed top, when he was up there, i was like, man, who is this actor they sent me. arnold schwarzenegger is coming to come on here and the way saw the fsb guys and rescue me.

[laughs] he came, got on the, said, i'm roger parsons, i have to identify you. i said, yeah, it's me. [laughs] i'm trevor. he didn't respond to that and then he left. i was kind of like but, dude. [laughs] can i go? the fsb said, no. i said, what's the problem? one of them looks at me and goes, are you sure america wants you back? [laughs] >> they send their dover to the, check out their guy. and we do the exchanged, walk past konstantin yaroshenko. konstantin -- >> a russian pilot who is 11 years into a 20 year sentence for conspiring to bring 100 million dollars worth of cocaine into the united states.

how did he look versus how did you look? >> he has not been on any hunger strikes, not missing any meals. one >> -- >> once on board the plane, trevor got a real meal. they >> gave me a steak and that was the best thing i've ever had in my life. [laughs] i'll never forget that. >> there was also that first phone call home, the mom and dad. >> that moment was extremely surreal. i don't even remember what i said. i think i told them, you know, hey, it's me, i'm on the plane, i'm coming home. i'll see you guys, everything is okay. don't worry. >> i think, we're really going to -- it's gonna really hit us when we get to put our arms around him. >> hours later in san antonio, texas, it did not quite work out that way because trevor left russia sick, fearing he caught tuberculosis from

another prisoner. >> they'll try to hug me, but i was like, no, don't touch me. i'm not going to give my family tuberculosis. after the initial tests came back negative, they were like, if you want, you can hug them. i knew that they were freaking out. [laughs] i was like, okay. >> we got the first dog, trevor? >> i don't know. >> awe, trevor. >> obviously was your mom. >> and it was a very long one. it was very long. a judge a pullback wants and he wouldn't let go. -- he's not letting me go. [laughs] >> someone he has local, his russian girlfriend, lena. we need told me that she did not want to continue our relationship. >> that's related to personal, emotional issues that she's having, dealing with my or release. i told her that i absolutely

understand and they over for the rest of my life. >> he's being held in a prison camp. >> -- republican politicians who put aside differences with the biden administration to work for their sons release, such as their congressman, august pfluger, who is there one chevy landed. >> this is not political. when they took jeopardy, and take a republican democrat, they take an american, and a veteran at that. -- an attack on a mirror and let's get him home. if we can't force them, we should try to do whatever we need to do to get our americans home. >> it is controversial in some circles to do a prisoner swap. people who are not in favor say, this is going to incentivize other governments to take americans hostage or prisoner under false charges, so as to get their people out of american jails. >> i don't buy it. then you have to understand is countries like north korea,

russia, china, syria, iran, venezuela countries like that are going to take americans like the hostage, no matter what's. those type of governments need no incentive. they're always going to do that. it's our duty, as americans, to get back every american who's being held overseas. i think that's who it says the united states apart. >> it's quickly becoming a new mission for trevor, who is forced to leave a man behind. paul whelan, the u.s. marine trevor never met but due to admire. >> i would ask prisoners, do you know paul whelan? they said, yeah, we know who is. i said, how is you doing there? they said, he's just like you. he's fighting, he's resisting, he's causing as many problems as he can, he's not giving up.

i was proud to hear that. i'm still proud of him. >> proud and determined to push for wheel and freedom. and britney griner's too. the wnba star was picked up in moscow's international airport in february while returning from playing off-season basketball there. the u.s. considers her unlawfully detained. there are around 55 american citizens unlawfully detained or held hostage overseas. >> we need to do absolutely everything we can, as americans, to advocate for those americans who are being held illegally overseas and do every single thing we can possible to get them out. we have to do that. when they told me that i was leaving, i thought apollo leaving with me. when i found of the left him,

joe stuff. you didn't want to go without him? >> you don't have a choice, trevor. >> sorry. >> you don't have a choice. there's nothing you can do. >> yeah, i realize that. the fact is that, united states should have gotten him out and we have to get at any cost. >> coming up, the whelan family joins us live. lisa here, has had many jobs. and all that experience has led her to a job that feels like home. with home instead, you too can become a caregiver to older adults.

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out-of-state corporations wrote an online sports betting plan they call "solutions for the homeless". really? the corporations take 90 percent of the profits. and using loopholes they wrote, they'd take even more. the corporations' own promotional costs, like free bets, taken from the homeless funds. and they'd get a refund on their $100 million license fee, taken from homeless funds, too. these guys didn't write a plan for the homeless.

they wrote it for themselves. as as we've discussed, former marine paul whelan has been held in russia we've discussed, for more than three years. he was visiting moscow for a former marine, colin, has friend's wedding when he was been held in russia for more detained and accused of than three years. he was visiting moscow for espionage. in june 2020, paul fans wedding when he was detained and was convicted and sentenced to accused of espionage. and 16 years in a russian labor june 2020, paul camp. joining me now, paul's was convicted and sentenced to 16 years in younger brother david and big a russian labor sister elizabeth. and, david, camp. joining me now, let me start with you, because paula's younger brother, david, and i understand your parents spoke big sister, to paul yesterday, and he found elizabeth. david, i'll start with you out that trevor was speaking. i understand your parents spoke to out for the first time. what paul yesterday. he found out that was his reaction? trevor was speaking for the >> i think he was excited that first time. what was his reaction? >> he was excited that trevor was having that trevor was having that opportunity. and he sent a opportunity. he sent a message back message back through our, through parents. he uses these phone our parents. he calls really as our primary uses phone calls as a primary conduit conduit of getting information of getting information out of the prison to -- to us, to let the snow is

doing. -- >> to let us know how he's doing. >> can you tell us what the message was, or... >> sure. yeah, i brought it with me. he said, "this is a disintegrating experience for mind, body and soul. i need the white house to take decisive action to secure my release -- top level action -- and there is no better time than the present. " >> so, elizabeth, i don't know president if it's difficult to see trevor home, given the fact that paul has been there longer and is. i'm elizabeth, still in russian captivity. i don't know if it's difficult trevor's family had the chance to see trevor home to speak with president biden twice to push for trevor's, given the fact that paul's been release. if you had the there longer and opportunity to speak with still in russian captivity. president biden, what would you say? treasures family had the -- >> well, it -- actually, it's not difficult to see trevor twice to push for trevor's release. home because we're so pleased that he is back, and i have worked alongside the reeds for a couple of years now to try to get both paul and trevor home. i think -- so, if i could tell you what i would tell the president, because he hasn't met with me, although i've asked four times and i've sent a personal email to his chief of staff -- and now we're being told, "well, we should make more noise and we should, you know, do what we can to try to see the president. " and,

process for wrongful detention do that. but if i was going to talk to the president, first i would say that we were very glad that trevor was back, but that the decision to bring trevor home without paul was a decision to leave paul in a stalin-era gulag in mordovia, to bring trevor home without paul in -- you know, eight hours was away from moscow. it was a decision to keep the family in agony, because every day has just been hell since he was arrested wrongfully. and it was a decision to continue to use our resources. i've been to washington 20-something times. we have three congressional resolutions that were passed on behalf of paul. one of them was passed when trevor was in the air. this particular resolution was being passed on the house floor, five or six members of congress speaking out for paul. so, of course i want to say to the president, please, bring my brother home. finish this job. >> yeah. >> but the other thing i would like to say is that we've got 55-plus americans being held in 18 different

countries. and if you were to go to a forest and see 55 trees on fire, you wouldn't send your firemen in to put out just the fire on one tree and then go home and celebrate and come back a couple of months later and figure, "ok, now we're going to put out the fire on another tree. " because by then the fire would have spread. you'd have more people wrongfully detained. you would have all of these families, these trees representing these hostages and families, burning to a cinder. >> yeah. >> what we go through is -- is extraordinary. and so i would say to the president, please, bring my brother home and bring them all home. >> and, david, you've said russia floated two of its citizens held in the united states as possible exchanges for your brother. one of those was konstantin yaroshenko, who we saw in the piece was traded for trevor reed. where does that leave paul's chances for release? >> well, it's hard to know. the

russians have actually asked for a number of people over the years. this week they asked for roman zeleznev (ph), who is the son of a duma legislator. so apparently the russians still want concessions from the united states. so i think the frustration for our family is that everybody, the russians, the american government, our family, has known that mr. yaroshenko was a concession the u.s. could have given three years ago, and they didn't. and it's not clear why they didn't, now that they have made the concession now. >> it does feel like the zeitgeist is changing on this prisoner swap idea. president biden did it, openly, for trevor, and there was not a lot of criticism from republicans, who criticized biden, fairly or unfairly, for everything. they were pretty quiet about this. and trevor's family was really appreciative. do you think maybe this is going to change things, changing the idea of legislators, others in washington willing to say, "yes, just do whatever we need to do

to get people home? " >> you know, it's hard to say. we were really pleased to see congress standing behind that decision and supporting the president with what he did. we don't know what will happen for paul. the family doesn't know what is being asked, what possible negotiations there are. but i will say to congress, to begin with, thank you to congress in general. ninety percent of you have been right there with families of wrongful detainees. we have a bipartisan co-sponsoring on all of these resolutions. there are a few members of congress, though, that i would like to address right now. and i'm doing this as a preemptive strike. you know, it's difficult for the president to make these decisions to give up anything in exchange for getting americans home because, of course, that's what hostage-taking is all about. it is really important that you don't tell him, "yeah, you know,

go ahead and do it, " and then slam him, bash him after -- after the fact. so i want to ask that anybody who is even thinking that, save that weasel dance for some other issue, and support the president, whichever president, doesn't matter what administration, in bringing home americans. what we really have to do is we have to solve that problem of wrongful detention. >> yeah, wonderful to have you here, elizabeth and david. thank you so much for your time. and we're going to continue to cover paul. >> thank you. >> we're going to continue to do it. we'll be right back.

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foundation, u.s. citizens and residents are being held in every one of these countries you see on your screen right now. secretary of state antony blinken says, quote, "we remain committed to securing the freedom of u.s. citizens paul whelan and brittney grinder in russia and all u.s. nationals held hostage or wrongfully detained abroad, " unquote. we're going to leave you tonight with just some of those whose families have asked for public advocacy. salah al-haidar, saudi arabia, 37 months. bader al-ibrahim, saudi arabia, 37 months. aziza al-yousef, saudi arabia, 48 months. airan berry, venezuela, 24 months. shahab dalili, iran, 6 years. luke denman, venezuela, 24 months. dr. walid fitaihi, saudi arabia, 54 months. mark frerichs, afghanistan, 27 months. matthew heath, venezuela, 20 months. majd kamalmaz, syria, 5 years. kai li, china, 5 years. alina lopez miyares, cuba, 5 years. siamak namazi, iran, 6 years. baquer namazi, iran, 6 years. paul overby, abducted in afghanistan, 8 years. jose pereira, venezuela, 54 months. paul rusesabagina, rwanda, 20 months. emad shargi, iran, 48 months. mark swidan, china, 10

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hello, welcome to our viewers in the united states, and all around the world, i am michael holmes, appreciate your company. 77 minutes. that is how long it took police to end the texas school shooter's rampage, leaving 19 children, and to teachers debt. that is according to the timeline released by officials. it is going to the hallway, and the children inside the classroom, who is holed up, and called 9-1-1. top police officials, now, admit that it was a mistake to