must be to have their mother back in her arms. we also know that paul whelan, sister is there. evan gershkovich father and mother? sister and brother-in-law, and the husband of alsu kurmasheva, as well. president biden, vice president harris, walking side-by-side in a critical moment can we go back to excuse oh, they're walking right now with evan gershkovich, his mother were hearing i think the voice of paul whelan, if i'm not mistaken biden is approaching towards the press right now, while we hear more from the president in it tastes on this extraordinary moment even briefly trotting to access the press relief for the family. >> did you think that this moment would come, sir? >> yes. >> what made you feel so confident relation move ahead? that was what american, sir.

>> what did you have to say to the three americans and their family members? welcome home and beyond that you said, sir, that family is everything earlier today. what has it meant to be with the family all day today as they are now finally reunited with their loved what you appreciate it. >> look anyone who's lost family worried about whether family would come home, whatever the circumstance was understand, history and you've heard me say before, my daddy say famine we what is your message tonight to vladimir putin stop what's your message to the american? we will want to build tonight. >> and i think it's fair to say there celebrating with a family flinch a message to the american people. >> there's nothing beyond our capacity reacted nothing,

nothing now here we are not bring united states of american united states merrick back together relationships with countries. we haven't had for, rebuild nato we rebuild the circumstances, allow this to happen that's why it happened you did for president should american journalists ever feel afraid about reporting? fraud i think look i'm not aware you are the certain places is going to be afraid on. >> the id. never do we afraid. >> you ever show up anywhere in ways to win show up anywhere in russia even show up anywhere. >> it matters. it matters to be aware of what you're going and do it not to take on do chances because it's going going to come gets right of your media where does this rank or ammonia media? >> steven says precedent for this to me. this is about the

essence who we are as a country it really is about personal relationships is about families, about being able to have access to your own people you love and your door how do you all feel? >> if you had been held, kept fairly children how many of you have children? raise your imagine who said in a prison? >> not knowing or ever get home. wondering what's going on there? i ache every night, every day matters hours before you announced like they were going to be leaving the 2024 race he talked to us a little bit about how important it was for yet this deal done knowing that you were not going to seek a second term, was it very i still get it done even if i was

seeking a second. not i'm just stuck in these wow there's no way out. >> okay. >> you've got me for at least another 190 days or so so that didn't do is that it had to do it with the opportunity and trying to convince one last country to say, okay, they'll step up mr. will now be cemented part of your 1rm on legacy. >> how were you thinking about the rest of your time in often howard? >> oh, it could talk about that another chancellor scholz's commitment to getting this deal across the finish line. >> could it have been possible without that agreement? >> no. >> thanks your reaction is nice very good testament ties under joe biden's leadership, our

administration salma's just the importance of building alliances, building the strength that we have through diplomacy, to have albums like this and that's what there's so much stake right now in our country on in this upcoming election, including who has which approach to understanding america's strength. this is an example of the strength of american leadership in bringing nations together to deliver under whether you are somebody like marc fogel that and vice president we were just watching the president united states answer questions alongside the vice president, the united states. >> now the presumptive democratic nominee, he was asked two questions which he gave a one word answers, one, did you ever expect a day like this to come to which he responded simply? yes. >> asked what his message to vladimir putin was. >> he said, stop. he encouraged everyone to know that there was nothing beyond the capacity of the united states and reminded his, he often says tell them

who the hell we are. we are the united states of america. he talks about putting back alliances, the importance of having rebuilt nato and also the idea of trying to appeal to the personal relationships and what it must be like for the families and children of those who were there. he also was asked about the security of the press, as he itself walk the line and a country that believes in the freedom of the press and said, it matters to be aware and not take undue chances believing that they would come to get them. but ultimately this was about the essence of what america was our own mj lee asked the question about whether his decision to get this done was impacted at all by his choice not to run for reelection. he said that he would still get it done even if he were not running. let me go to mj lee, who had so many critical questions were waiting with bated breath in this critical moment mj lee, the president united states, and the vice president, addressing the nation and dare i say the globe tonight yeah, and i have to tell you, laura, i am going

to be processing the events of the last hour or so for a awhile. >> just seeing that plane, the light come through, the darkness of the sky i landing the stairs, coming down and then seeing finally, those three americans come out. i know that we are going to spend a lot of time talking about president biden's role in all of this, as we already have been, and sort of the diplomatic push and the efforts that have gone into what culminated in what we saw but tonight, but i really do think the story tonight is about paul. it is about evan, it is about all sue a seeing them being able to greet their families that we're standing on the tarmac was an incredibly emotional and powerful moment of paul whelan coming off the plane and hugging his sister, elizabeth, who has been waiting for some six years for this moment has seeing evan coming off that plane and hugging and

lifting up his mom actually in a bear hug. and greeting his family and all of the wall street journal journalists and employees who were here to greet him. and then of course, seeing all sue the family members that greeted her, her two daughters and her husband really just let out a collective scream and i know you were talking about this before, but i couldn't help but really keep a close eye on her daughter miriam, who just minutes ago turned 13. so now, as the president was saying, at the white house earlier today, he had said now she gets to celebrate with her mom, and that's what this is all about. that is certainly now the case now that all suze also has been, united with members because of her family, her two daughters especially, you cannot imagine the experience that they have been going through, not to mention, of course, her husband now, just

to reset for a second, i know we talked about this during the day, but where these three americans are now headed, sun is on another airplane the head to san antonio, where they will go to a medical center to make sure that they can be properly examined and get all of the care that they are going to need in the coming days and weeks for what we certainly expect is going to be a long process of recovery of rehabilitation, of processing, everything that they have had gone through. we do not know the full story. of course, of each of these three americans and their stories and everything that they had been through and that is certainly something that is just important to keep in mind, just the process that is ahead for each of them as a joyous, as this moment and this night one the road ahead for them could be challenging again, as they sort of sort through and get the help that they need given the sort of harsh and tough

conditions we expect that they very much face while they were in russian detention, laura, but i really will tell you this is one of the most joyous moments i have had the honor of covering as a report are being able to see those americans freed and stepping on us soil. that was just an incredibly emotional moment. and we were so glad to have been able to witness it tonight unbelievable. >> it truly wise, weren't able to hear what evan gershkovich had to say, but we can only imagine will bring in the sand and we can the poignance of those words as everyone was watching and you and i are both moms and i think every mother across the globe felt the bear hug from evan gershkovich and the lifting off the ground as i am somebody whose son is growing taller than her by the day, what that must have been like, there was such a common element of humanity and just that moment, let alone all the rest. mj lee standby continued to take in this one. we're going to come back to you. we need to hear your perspective. it's so essential. let me turn to this panel.

>> can you believe what we have seen? >> i mean, we were talking about this this was truly extraordinary, the light of that plane coming through reminding us of the star spangled banner different versus about the bombs bursting in air, the light giving proof that a flag was still there. well, a light came through the clouds showing that there was, there americans and there was diplomacy still present i feel honored that we got to witness all that. i mean, they've landed half an hour ago. yeah. and i thought that much of this would be done in private understandably, and we got to watch this historic moment as they each stepped off the plane to see the president and the vice president. and then because those incredible moments with their families as they're reunited and paul wheelen's case see him there coming down he hasn't seen his sister in more than five-and-a-half years, are samantha waldenberg our colleague was actually in that press from as evan gershkovich

walked over and he simply said to his colleagues i'm home according according to our producer there, i can't help but think about paul whelan in this moment. can't compare the different experiences that these three had, but he was the person who was held the longest he remind us of the claims against him for which he was wrongfully detained he was arrested in december of 2018 and accused of espionage and tried and convicted and sentenced to 16 in years. >> following his arrest and detention, trevor reed was arrested. brittney griner was arrested, and the two of them came home. each of them were exchanged for a single russian in the russian the us judicial system. and he was essentially left behind our colleague jennifer hansler spoke to him repeatedly and he expressed his sadness at not being exchanged,

not being freed, but at the same time, he expressed his happiness that others got to, got to be releasing, got to go home. trevor reed said upon his release that he felt bad that paul whelan we're still in captivity and that he would continue to work for his release. so we're so happy for all of these prisoners who were released today. but i'm thinking specifically of paul whelan who has had such an an arduous and horrific ordeal over the past, almost six years. >> they were names being shouted out from some of the press about some who have been left behind as well. and there has been criticism of, or at least concern for those who still remain in particular, someone named marc fogel so there are he's another american he was convicted of drug smuggling he was found to have some 17 grams, i believe, of cannabis. >> so almost half an ounce and

he is not someone who the u.s considers wrongfully detained, which is a very it's a legal term and it's very specific, but he did not get released today, which i think was quite a surprise given the scope of the release that we saw on the number of people who were involved and there was a pretty swift reaction from his family. i've got the statement here in front of me and they said that for the second time in three years, marc fogel's detention in russia we are completely heartbroken and outraged that mark has been left behind while the u.s. government brought other americans home so they also expressed their well-wishes to the gershkovich and whelan families. but they said that it is incomprehensibl e that the u.s. government did not manage to get their relative marc fogel out today, ambassador, it speaks to the bittersweet nature and the nuance nature an incredible different difficult decisions that must be made in trying to

determine a prioritization of people who are likely viewed completely equally by americans as american when you see this moment a reunification, and you see all the effort that must have gone into it what's your reaction tonight it has to be joy. >> it has to be happiness, it has to be satisfaction and has to be some pride. laura and what our government has done, and we did it as americans. we had values. they represented values. we want and bring them home into those places where we respect those values. so it's a good time for us to remember what those values are and what they represent. >> vice president harris was speaking at the end, they're given comments and she spoke to the need of building alliances and the strength through diplomacy for outcomes like this to happen. but you also said in mentioning the 2024 presidential election, which is it's now 95, i think days away. that it's about who has

the right approach to diplomacy to alliance's. you are a former ambassador. certainly, you are uniquely equipped to tell us about the significance of alliances and being able to go to a country like germany, slovenia, and others and have the diplomatic capital to have this outcome well, it's exactly right. >> that's what alliances do work together. they work toward a common goal they bring different skills and different strengths to an alliance that allows them to get things done that they couldn't do individually. we couldn't have done this yes. nine states couldn't have done this alone. president biden recognized that the chancellor, german chancellor had a big decision to make made that because of respect to the united states, he made that out of determination that it was good for the country in the end to get those german citizens back. so that was a difficult thing, but it it drove the alliance, maybe alliance allowed that to

happen. and so there are values on alliances that give us things that i thought it was fascinating that when president biden and the vice president finally came near the microphone, that was one of the first points they wanted to make you know, we've seen no other presidents and other situations in after something joyous like this, make it about themselves, say, i did et cetera, et cetera. and every time president biden was asked, he talked about thank goodness, slovenia was willing to do this for us. thank goodness. you know, couldn't have done it without chance chancellor scholtz. >> so in this big messy joyous moment on the tarmac, all this organized, it. you didn't get a sense of ego there. i think that's the other thing that's going to be the it's going to temper what we hear from those released. there's going to be certain amount of survivor's guilt that there are others like mark vogel still left behind and they won't want to

say too much for fear of hurting the cases of other folks still being detained. and i think you also saw that that was the other bit of message control we saw from president biden. he was given the opportunity to bash vladimir putin, and he did not saying stop is something he said publicly before, but he didn't go any further because there are still people they'd like to get out before the end of this presidency just moments ago, we were watching the motorcade is leaving. it just tells you it's almost the idea of the time that goes on. 45 minutes about after landing, the president and the vice president are headed back to continue in the work of their administration. and we have mj lee who has, been on that tarmac, who has been covering this. so closely and we are just thinking about the image is seared in our brains for me it's the teenage daughters hugging their mother in this moment, mj, you have some information about what paul whelan, what evan gershkovich

were saying to reporters yeah, we do, you know, we weren't able to quite hear what evan was saying as he was greeted by his colleagues in the press. but i am told by somebody that was in that scrum that he did greet the wall street journal's world coverage chief saying, hey, both. and then thanked emma tucker. this is of course the editor in chief the paper for all of the work that she and others at the paper had done to get him freed and get him home. >> this was a real moment of celebration. >> you could really hear the cheers when evan, finally after greeting his family, approach that scrum of reporters again about about a dozen wall street journal employees, we were told here, some of them covering this moment, but all of them here to celebrate his return home we're also learning that paul whelan said when asked about other americans that still remain wrongfully detained abroad, that he responded with just hanging

there. we're coming for you. >> this is really quite a poignant thing for paul whelan to say, of course, because he understands better than anybody else. >> what it feels like to be left behind to wait for the u.s. government to secure your release and to learn that it isn't your turn most notably hopefully of course most recently i should say, was back in december of 2022 when brittney griner was released from russian detention and he was not a part of that mix. us officials at the time had said they very much pushed for paul whelan to be a part of that swap, but he simply wasn't and we know from all of the reporting that particularly my colleague jenny hansler, husband doing and has been in contact with him over the course of many months that he very much felt frustrated at times incredibly angry that his time wasn't coming and now he is in the position of trying to send that message to anybody that is still detained abroad,

that their turn will soon come. this, of course, would apply to somebody like marc fogel, who us officials had said they want it to be a part of this historic massive deal. they made that push and the same way that they did for paul whelan in that brittney griner deal. mark was not a part of this deal and us officials have really said that they are going to double their efforts to, at some point, get him out and get him home as well. laura mj, we have some sound of what evan gershkovich, who came off the plane. we held his hands up for a moment as if to say, i'm home. here's we had to say as he's walking towards the press evan out of the home not bad. >> it feels good. pretty unbelievable to think about that. the split-screen, as you've mentioned, brittney griner, mj lee, i mean the olympics are going on. she is participating, playing on

behalf of the united states of america, only made possible by her release through the concerted effort of diplomatic negotiations to get her home. and tonight she's also expressing her joy that they are able to be home as well it's pretty extraordinary. mj absolutely. >> and you can't help but just feel like you are a part of this celebration here, even just being, of course, a member of the media, but just being an american watching the events of the last hour unfold president biden in the questions, the many questions that he took from reporters, he obviously wanted to take this moment to take a victory lap, talked a lot about those diplomatic efforts that he had made in his administration striation had made to get to this historic deal. and he said simply that my job is to first made sure that these kinds of detentions don't happen. but that second, that when they do he has to get

them home vice president kamala harris, we should note, was standing right next to the president that entire time and weighed in at points talking about the power of diplomacy. so just a lot of different moving pieces because here there is, again, as we have been talking about, the diplomatic push and all of the efforts that went into what we saw tonight and getting these three americans home. >> but then just separately, the very human story of these three americans being reunited with their family members are so desperately wanted to see he, this moment wanted to feel and touch their loved ones back in their arms. >> and that is, of course what we just witnessed. laura, we certainly did the pinch me moments that were followed by the hugs. mj lee. thank you so much. i want to get right to tom nichols. he's a staff writer for the atlantic and a professor emeritus of national security barriers at the u.s. naval war college, where he taught for 25 years. his latest

article is about how this prisoner swap is a big win for the kremlin as well. tom, i just want to get your reaction at first to what we have seen tonight. i mean, this is an extraordinary moment. the largest prisoner swap since the cold war three americans home on american soil tonight how can you not be proud to be an american at a moment like that, to see what we just saw tonight and especially when you realized that the united states government got these people out because their citizens there innocent the people, there are you know, our sons and daughters are husbands and wives our fellow citizens. >> and what the russians got were murderers hackers, and money launderers and that shows what a difference there is between these two countries. and what they both did to get these people back it is quite extraordinary to think about

that and who, and what and the why. >> and frankly, your piece which is really fascinating title of your pieces, the kremlin gets what it wants. how is this? flop you call a victory for putin well, i didn't mean to imply that this, you know, huge win for russia and not for the united states but putin wanted this swamp, i think for two reasons. >> one is it's a way for him to say to all the people doing his bidding around on the world to all of these thugs and secret agents and bad guys in general don't worry if something happens to you. i will come for you. i will make sure i get you out that's the deal. it's kind of like it's almost like a mafia code, right? if you do your set and you do your time, i will get you out and we will spring you. >> the other is to try to kind of smear the west as being just like russia. >> but they trade and people, we trade people.

>> they have people who did bad things. we have people who they accused of doing bad things and we're all the same and he gets back some people that might be of value to him, might not be but that he definitely wants to make the point that we are the same because we're doing these swaps and we're not the same. and i think you saw that tonight. >> that that but that heat the kremlin does get what it wants. it held on to these people, as i said in the piece, it takes human beings and it puts them on a scale like slabs of meat, until they get the kind of the deal they want. and unfortunately, that's the kind of regime we had to deal with to get our people back and get them home i wonder about the why now and the games. you describe. does it have anything to do? do you think with american politics in terms of the timing, mj lee, i would note, asked president biden this very question about what this would look like. and he

said, look, he would still get it done even if he was running rank reelection and joked about how we're stuck with him for another 100 plus days until inauguration. but that this decision, that this deal had nothing to do with politics. it had to do with the timing of one country stepping in and up to the plate at the appropriate time. >> i think that's right. i think we shouldn't get too obsessed about our own politics and think that everything in the world revolves around our election schedule or around american political conventions. >> this deal, this deal took a couple of years and all deals like this, these kinds of sway pops they're incredibly intricate this one especially so because it wasn't just between the united states and russia. >> it involved other countries. >> and they operate on their own schedule and they do things when they want to do things and i think the president made a good point that this is really

about the value of alliances. >> and convincing other countries to do things when you need them to come through. but the idea that somehow the russians or anybody else kind of timed this to be where it was. i suspect this deal was going to happen sometime around now now no matter who was running for what because it made sense to the russians they got they took the they got the pound of flesh they wanted they got their people back and at that point, it just made sense to get on with it and finish the deal. and i think they would have done that no matter what was happening, american politics that point tom nichols, thank you so much i do want to bring in cnn state department reporter and producer, jennifer hansler, also with us ambassador william taylor and kim dozier. they are still here as well. jennifer. this is extraordinary everyone hoped a day like this would come, not the least of which are those who are released. and their families, but to see it happening and to hear president

biden asked, did you ever think this day would come and him play to say yes? >> yeah. i mean, an remarkably moving moment, laura and one thing that stood out to me was the way that whelan saluted the president. this is an expert corinne, this is someone who told me in our conversations. one thing that kept his spirits up was waking up and singing the national anthem from his russian detention camp there about eight hours from now moscow, he, he was able to keep his spirits pretty high throughout the course of this five-and-a-half-year long plate, there were times when his spirits dropped, for example, when he's not included in that prisoner swap for brittney griner, but overall for someone going through this abs salute nightmare, he was able to keep a strong self sense of self. and we saw that reflected there as he was getting off that plane. >> what a moment to think about that solute and the return salute from the president, the united states you know, there's a lot of information we have yet to learn about the decision-making process. but do you have any insight as to his inclusion this time? >> well, i think the key factor here was the inclusion of that and krasikov in that massive

prisoner swap we take place earlier today in the past couple of rounds when paul was not included, one of the things that's been suggested is that moscow was not going to trade him for anyone less than a spy or not? fasten and we know in the russian system they want parody, they want someone who they see as an equal to whoever they are trading. the u.s. didn't have any russian spies in their custody. so this set off this whole diplomatic really complicated negotiation to find spies and assassin's like kraskov to be able to trade for paul remind us, krasikov what he did and why he was serving time in germany while he was serving out a life sentence for murder my colleagues might be able to correct me, but he assassinated someone. was it judges chechen? yes. yes. and middle of the afternoon in a public park which of course would tell you why they would would be some reluctance to release that person, right? yeah. >> i mean, germany has a number of people who fled other countries seeking safety safe haven. be it from the middle

east, syria, et cetera. and it prides itself on taking care of its citizens and respecting their privacy and to give someone like this up, someone who committed murder in broad daylight in such a brazen fashion. you know, the worry would have been what signal does that send? will they just do it again there and then see somebody else but of course, president biden addressed that it's to look this has been going on since time immemorial. remember the us hostages seized back in 1979 by iranian revolutionaries? it is a stock in trade that happens you just have to be careful where you go, how you go, and ultimately resin biden followed through with that promise of we're going to bring them home despite the fact that it could be a green light to malign actors to take another american the next time they want someone

back. >> all of you please stand by. i want to speak with you more about this extraordinary moment and what has taken place tonight. we're gonna take a short break. there's much more on the arrival of these three. now free america hurricanes who have their feet firmly planted on american soil oh, i'm getting you. >> just hear scurry at heart was pounding. >> my hands were shaking not go outside. >> your life depends on if you're living with hiv imagine being good to go with them. >> daley hiv pills. >> good to go unscripted good

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get the fastest connection to paris with xfinity. favorite pair of jeans today, i'm taylor available on the apple app store or android i oversaw alvarez at the white house and this is cnn breaking news tonight, just moments ago, this scene, three americans touching down on us soil following the biggest prisoner exchange with russia since the end of the cold war, we see paul whelan and embracing the

president and the vice president, followed by, of course evan gershkovich, alsu kurmasheva, who it was current shave, i excuse me. ordinary moment joining me now, former national security council director hagar chemali, cnn, national security analyst, and former cia chief of russia operations, steve hall, and cnn political the goal and national security analyst, david sanger, what an extraordinary night we are seeing. let me begin with you here, steve, because there is obviously the primary interests of course, in the well-being of these individuals, one of whom is served for years already. but talk to me about the intelligence gathering aspect in all all this for the release prisoners how does that work from here now you know, a lot of people ask you, it's been one of the themes has been sort of popping up during the course of the coverage today, which is, you the cia involvement in this. and it's not necessarily obvious, i think for a lot of americans how this works certainly the central intelligence agency deploys

case officers and people overseas to collect intelligence. but the other very important thing that cia people do overseas as they do precisely this, they have liaison relationships, even with countries like russia that were essentially enemies with or adversaries it's so that these types of arrangements can be done. the russians always insist that it happened in intelligence channels when situations like this occurred because they feel that it's the most secure and most basically they're just most comfortable with doing it that way. so that's that's the role that cia plays. and that's one of the reasons that the cia director victor was there this evening and involved in this whole process over the months and years that it's taken to do this. >> let's see what will happen now that they are going to go down. i leave san antonio. they'll have obviously medical assessment, but there'll be asked a number of questions. i suspect the intelligence community and the government would be interested in some of the questions and answers they will pose yes, there'll be

some questions that we'll be asked and will provide some interesting intelligence with regard to prison conditions inside of russia operations that were conducted by the russian intelligence services to scoop these people up and take them hostage. >> so yes, there'll be some of that. it won't be the only ci that's interested in that there'll be a number of other organizations, fbi and others that are curious about that. there is some interest there. but most of cia's work as of course, foreign collection, these people who have, who have just been released do have some information and there'll be debriefed on that. >> david, we're learning that donald trump was critical of this deal, what's your reaction doesn't surprise me. >> i mean, the first and interesting thing is that paul whelan was taken during the trump administration. i think that's why you saw president biden issue that sort of quip at the end of his statement earlier today, which is the if president trump pled, it was so easy to get them back. why

didn't he do it? >> when he was president? but i think in this gets to two or three larger points. and the first is that this took some diplomacy with allies and it's particularly took diplomacy with the germans and during president trump's time, we had a particularly difficult relationship with germany and with angela merkel president trump made no secret of how he disliked in this case, it would not have worked had chancellor scholz not agreed to give up a russian intelligence agent would have been as you were discussing before convicted of murder in the middle of the tiergarten, in the middle of the city and so that was one of the fruits of new relationships that had come up close. >> second goes to what you were

just discussing about the cia in this case, we have a cia director bill burns, who used to be ambassador to moscow knows putin better than any of the administration officials who are out there the russians have some grudging respect, treat him as well. >> and he's repeatedly played diplomatic roles outside of the usual channels. >> for a cia director in the movies and in this he was the one who was sent to putin to warn him of the dangers of invading ukraine. it didn't work, but it's interesting that he was the emissary so i think these are all elements of what happened today. and then there's just the pure joy of it. i mean, we're all impartial reporters, but it's hard to be impartial when you see one of your colleagues and competitors. the great evan gershkovich, get off that plane when you see as all of us are

human beings watching what transpired. >> and those were walking home and extraordinary moment he garland me, go to you, please, because the russians have released set well, who were released have some criminal history to say the least. it'll screen of who was there one includes an assassin who killed someone brazenly in the middle of a park in germany, you've got a money launderer computer hacker, are there any now national security concerns that any of these individuals and also why putin would want these specific ones back well, there's always a risk when you, when you have any kind of prisoner swap that the thugs and the murders and assassin's that you're releasing, you're gonna go back to their old ways. and a lot of it might not even be in their, in their hands. putin is going to use that leverage over them and say, you know, i got you released and now you're going to go back to doing this kind of work for me in response. and as in gratitude of what i did do, release you. and it's very common you've seen it with every every prisoner in and you've seen it with

particularly with the russian regime and why the russian regime, because this has been hostage diplomacy has been a hallmark of their foreign policy for decades. so they collect american hostages and other hostages specifically use them as bargaining chips. it's really a tool of the week, and it's because of their nefarious behavior around the world. so they use them for to achieve a number of goals. but one of them is to get these thugs back so that they can deploy them in particular when they're in the middle of a war with ukraine, i have no doubt that all of them are going to be deployed for this type of work. >> again, very for voting to think about that, steve mean, take a listen for a moment to visibly emotional national security adviser jake sullivan just talking about the deal today i spent a lot of time with the families of evan and paul and all sue. and most of the time, as you can imagine, those are tough conversation but not today. today excuse me

today was very good day and we're going to build on it drawing inspiration and continued courage from it for all of those who were held hostage or wrongfully detained around the world can you shed some light on just how difficult it is to put deals like this together and then to actually have an achieved outcome particularly lore with the russians, it's, it's, it's, i'm trying to think of the right the right word. it's it's just so frustrating because the lines get changed the goalpost get pushed back the other thing that i think a lot of a lot of viewers there's in the united states don't understand is don't see with the granularity that i've had just the whole of government approach to try to do something like this. so this isn't just one individual, one administration one agency, one organization. this is the entire national security apparatus coming together to

try to focus and get something extremely important done. it's take it took such a long time. it was so complicated must have been so frustrating. and i think that's why we saw the national security adviser becoming emotional, not usually an emotional guy, but it just shows how much work, how much energy, how much frustration how many obstacles had to be cleared to get to this. and it wouldn't surprise me if in addition to feeling euphoria and happiness about seeing the result of that, i certainly still feel a sense of rage because russia will continue to do these types of things. i mean, how many countries does russia have to invade? how many hostages does it have to take? how many people does it have to kill? not only inside russia, but outside of russia before the rest of the world says, you know, these guys aren't very nice. we need to do something about this. what that something is, is another very complicated question for another day. but all of that i think came together when you saw the

national security adviser addressing the public today described with one word, when president biden was asked, what is your message to vladimir putin? >> stop hunter, steve, david, thank you both. and all so much thank you we'll have more on the freed americans returning to us soil and meeting with presidents biden and vice president harris. and most importantly, hugged and embraced by their loved ones. in just a moment on the edge, moments that shaped our culture coming this fall on cnn. if you have chronic kidney disease, you can reduce the risk of kidney failure with par sega because they are places you'd like to be for segal can cause serious side effects, including ketoacidosis that may be fatal

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other americans were on their way, first to turkey and then the united states of america. they all three touchdown on us soil being greeted by the president, united states, and the vice president. the historic deal. so big and involved 24 detainees, seven countries, russia giving up 16 prisoners to the u.s. and its allies in turn, getting back eight. but tonight the focus is on the three who touched down evan gershkovich, paul whelan, and alsu kurmasheva welcomed home by their families, embraced by either their daughters, their sisters, their mothers, and their colleagues. my panel is back with me, jennifer, i mean, you have been talking to the family members for quite some time. what did they this means to them? >> well, this is a huge moment for them, laura, i want to point to elizabeth whelan. she has been fierce, fierce advocate for her brother's case from the very get-go, bacco for there were a lot of the guidelines and protocols that we see in place now for wrongfully detained americans, those weren't necessarily in place five-and-a-half years ago when paul was detained? so she was coming to dc dozens of

times every year on her own dime to meet with lawmakers, to meet with government officials, to press the urgency of her brother's case. and we saw her there on the tarmac, able to give him a hug after 5.5 years of only really being able to hear from him from letters. so really remarkable moment for her there. and then now of course, the other really, really touching moment among the many touching moments we saw was when also kurmasheva is daughters and husband were able to embrace her there on the tarmac. her younger daughter, miriam today is her 13th birthday, but her older daughter, bibi, just turned 16 about two weeks ago. so unfortunately, she had this big milestone birthday that mother was not able to be there for. and i spoke to her and she said they'd has been incredibly hard to be going through this time as a young woman without her mom there to guide her, how long has she been held? she had been held a little over a year. it was a complicated story where she also went to go visit her mother and then she was blocked from turning home on her flight and eventually

arrested and detained. and we saw her convicted about two weeks ago. >> there was almost a kind of hope that they were holding out his hand as these two teenage daughters they had been hoping to have their extraordinary part of their summer to be a taylor swift concert actually, now they have their mother home. >> yeah. >> alsu's husband, paul levels but they were so confident that you would be coming home, you know, in normal due course that when the taylor swift tickets went on sale for her european tour, they bought them for the whole family assuming she would be home and we know when we spoke a couple of weeks ago, he did not think they would make this concert. i don't know if there's still going to make this concert, but at least they have a good reason for missing at this time. >> taylor swift still the beacon of hope across the nation for so for so many reasons, but what a moment to think about ambassador. i mean, we saw something that has not been seen since the cold war reflect on what this significant nominees for you. >> for me, laura, is really that the united states pull together and got something done bringing these people home. the day is focused on those three

people and their joy and the family joy. but i think we as a nation can be proud of what we did and certainly, i mean, we saw a moment when president biden appeared to remove something from his own clothing and hand it to paul whelan apparently it was his own american flag pin giving it to paul whelan, the marine once a marine, always a marine. paul whelan salute as he it got off the plane and what a moment to honor all of the years that he spent watching other americans get released and finally, he's here i'm thinking about this as also to capstone of a one-year presidency of a one-term presidency. but what a moment to go down in history like that? also the way that biden and harris both talked about it, they kept deflecting

what did you do in this and saying this was about allies, this was about them doing things that weren't in their interests because we ask them to. and that is the message that i think they hope will stick that they did this for us because they know will be for them when they need it. >> and of course that shows the complication of not just having the sisters like i miss whelan or others going to our own government, but having to wait on the bureaucratic machine to operate globally. >> absolutely. laura and jake sullivan described this has months and months of painstaking negotiations. that was the word he used because they have had to put numerous offers on the table to try to get specifically paul whelan home. those efforts were made even more complicated when evan gershkovich was arrested last year. and then when alsu was also arrested, so they've really had to work the entire inner agency to try it. they get the solution that ultimately resulted in the biggest prisoner swap that we've seen since the cold war. >> a whole of government

approach. i can't help but reflect on the fact that today we the olympics saw americans on the top of their podiums holding gold metals. today, we as a world watched americans descend down the stairs and believed again, and what president biden said, there's nothing beyond our capacity. thank you all for watching. cnn's live coverage continues in just a moment shai do you, want know, warren so go to feed me house of the dragon, streaming exclusively on max with priceline vip family. >> you can unlock deals five times faster. you don't even have to be an actual family. >> the dad on the day physically, it's clear that i'm the dad. okay. >> so which dad is pain?

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