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it's 4:00 in new york. a feat of diplomacy and friendship. that's how president biden described the largest prisoner swap since the cold war. it was a massive effort resulting in four u.s. residents, "wall street journal" report e paul whelan, finally heading home. here's president biden surrounded by the families of the detainees. >> it feels like this one come with tough calls and there are never any guarantees. there's nothing that matters more to me than protecting americans at home and abroad. so we'll continue to work for the release of all wrongful detained americans around the world. >> in total, russia is releasing 16 prisoners in exchange. nbc news reports the u.s. released three russian prisoners, including an

intelligence operative including smuggling ammunition to the russian military, slovenia released two russian prisoners, norway and poland each released one. the swap is the result of nearly two years of persistence after brittney griner was released in december of 2022. now the exact details of this deal only came together in the last two weeks. the president personally lobbying germany and other european allies to help. for the released americans and their families, today is undoubtedly a good day. this video from russian media claims to show the detainees as they boarded the plane. paul whelan had been detained for more than 2,000 days. his employer, "the wall street

journal", with this incredible home page, as well as a stung piece of reporting on gershkovich, the man who had become ilts most famous prisoner. one, he would be allowed to leave with the papers he penned in detention, and the makings of a book he'd labored over. but first, they had another piece of writing they required from him. an official request for presidential clemency. the text should be addressed to vladimir putin. the printout included a long blank space the prisoner could fill out if desired, or simply, as expected, leave blank. in the formal high russian he had honed over the 16 months imprism, he filled out the page. the last line submitted a proposal of his own. after his release, putin be willing to sit down for an interview. that's where we start with the veteran journalist susan glasser

is here. she spent four years in moscow as the bureau chief there. she's now with "the new yorker." also with us is senior national security analyst, the former director of the cua john brent. and with me at the table, rick stank the is here. good afternoon to all of you. thank you for being with us. this is a very big deal from a negotiating perspective. what are the kinds of things involved in getting a deal like this done? >> it's unprecedented deal and a remarkable display of very effective and successful diplomacy by the administration. because there's so many pieces to this. as you you're mentioned earlier, it was proyears in the making. this is the continueuation of the ongoing dialogue between the united states and russia about getting individuals released. and so i'm sure that over the course of these last many months, there have been detailed discussions that had to take place both within the united

states government because there are multiple agencies that would need to be involved, but also this orchestration across five or six other countries to agree, and just to take care of the logistics about when this transfer would take place, how it would be done, so trying to understand the full coordination of this is really quite remarkable in terms of how it was carried out. just because there are so many aspects of this that were taking place across many countries. also it just underscores the importance of these alliances that the u.s. has built up over the years and how our global leadership is so important and integral to being able to make actions like this come to fruition. i'm just amazed. i have been involved in by rat lal exchanges with the russians, but a multilateral one done in secure manner and no wrd of this

leaked out before, it truly is a testament to the professionalism of the individuals involved. >> ssan glasser, all of these prisoners, these hostages, it's what they were, are held for different reasons, different causes. the one that was most interesting to me was the opposition leader. this is different from addressing somebody like evan gershkovich. this is a different calculous. what was behind him being released? >> it really is very powerful to see those images that you just showed us. they are the very definition of people not only held hostage, but brutalized and nearly killed. not only in custody, but also not once but twice he was poise sobbed by russians for the criminal act, as they saw it, of daring to oppose vladimir putin.

another prisoner was released, he was the long-time leader of a human rights group. these are russian modern day dissidents who the united states chose to trade for. i think it really reenforces the extent to which this is a cold war-like situation. and russia has become a country where even freedom of speech is a criminal act. i think it's really a bold gesture by the united states and its allies. it speaks to the idea that russia wants killers, murders and spies back. and we're working for the freedom of people who simply chose to oppose putin's tyranny. >> i want to play for you something that secretary of state antony blinken said today on the complexity. director brennan was referring to this, but the complexity of this deal and he referred to as enlarging the problem set. let's listen to it. >> it took the incredible, incredible collaboration with them as you know, a number of

other countries in order to do this, and so a lot went into just working with those countries to get it to get this lined up, as well as of course with the russians. but it could not, would not have worked without all of these different pieces. and sometimes in a way enlarging the problem set is actually the key to success. and i think that was the case here. >> apologies to those people only getting the audio. that was a little -- the recording wasn't fantastic on that, but he's talking about enlarging the problem set is sometimes the key to the slulgs. those who don't negotiate for a living think you want to keep things to the specifics of the problem. you have a prisoner. we have a prisoner we want to trade. this became successful because the biden administration reached

out to other countries to say why don't we make this a multilateral deal. >> it's a paradox. but it is also an ax yum that you have a small problem. making it biger sometimes solves it. slovenia ptss to get someone back. so as john said, this is like a three-dimensional chess problem. even the negotiation within the u.s. government is complicated. it's a tribute to alliances, to friendships, where people trust each other. where the chancellor of germany released an assassin on his territory because the u.s. president and the u.s. government asked him to and because he knows that there's a reciprocity there. that's super important. that's what the whole biden presidency is about. that's what's on the line now. >> that's an important point. director brennan, there has been talk -- most people are happy to see these hostages are released.

there's always talk about whether these sorts of deals incentivize places like russia, most hostages are held by states or state-aligned organizations. talk to me about that. how do you think about that? do these trades cause places like russia to take more prisoners so they can get more trades? >> these are difficult choices. you're dealing with the reality that around the globe, you have these regimes, the authoritarian regime within moscow that do not play by any type of international laws or rules and will resort to certain tactics to get their way. the united states has a firm commitment to trying to make sure our citizens are going to be kept safe and secure. so i'm sure there were intensive discussions over many months in the white house situation room, where these equities were discussed and to talk about the up size and the downsize. this issue of regimes and governments takes hostages as

hostage taking is something that seems to have increased. we have seen it with iran and russia and also involving china and other countries. so therefore, this is something that really requires a strategic approach to. at the same time, i think the biden administration felt that there was a real imperative to try to get these individuals out of harm's way in russia and now able to celebrate the release, but also the we have to make sure that american citizens understand that there are dangers, especially now given the situation in russia. >> we're playing video that's been provided by russian state tv showing the departure of those hostages, those prisoners from russia getting on buss and then on the planes. it's kind of remarkable to watch. through the course of the evening, i'm going to be speaking to a lot of people who have been posted or are currently posted in russia. what's your sense as a journalist about this? things have become substantially more dangerous for journalists.

it's overseas in place associated with state-sponsored hostage taking. >> that's exactly right. and i should point out for western journalists, if it's a risk, freedom of speech inside russian for russian journalists is even more extinguished. i know so many terrific heroic independent journalists from russia who had to flee their own country and go into exile because they feared arrest for the simple crime of writing and reporting and speaking the truth inside their country. so it's nearly impossible now in many ways the situation inside rusia is worse for journalist than it was even in the later ra of the soviet union.

after the efforts to oept the society, it was easier to be a journalist in russia then, russian society has been militarized to a large extent by putin as a kobs kwens. to him as a benefit of this horrible invasion that he launched two years ago. going forward it suggests that russia is embracing its identity, and the deal, in a way, is a sad recognition of the fact that russia is a hostage-seeking country. >> president biden spoke to the role alliances played and why alies matter. let's listen to what he had to say. >> anyone who questions if allies matter, they do. they matter.

and today's a powerful example of why it's vital to have friends in this world. friends you can trust, work with, depend upon. we began to see that again today. >> you made this point. this is actually important for us to consider right now with however days to go until the election. we do have a candidate running who doesn't believe these alliances in particular are as important as they are. and we think about wars and invasions and things like that, but this is one of those instances. we have some innocent people out because we have alliances. >> yeah, it's sad to me that former president trump is so insecure, is so skeptical of this that he thinks alliances are bad for america. he wants america to be alone. winston churchill said the only

worse fighting with your allies is fighting without them. our whole national identity has been, in part, formed by those early alliances. the first one with france. a long-time with the british who we fought against for our independence. this is one of the things that biden has done is to reinvigorate, the greatest military alliance in history, but inre invigorate the western idea of promotion of democracy. to go back to what susan was saying, that's a promotion of democracy because there are countries like russia where the very idea of a free press is ail yan. they regard reporting as espionage. someone like donald trump, who treats russia as sort of a pal, that's a really dangerous thing. >> director brennan, there are still american who is are held in russia. there are lots of people from all over the world held in a lot

of countries. this has become a very, very serious problem. as you pointed out, there's been a remarkable increase in state-sponsored hostages because they are treated as prisoners, but if you are arrested in russia, the conviction rate is the high 90%. you're going to be convicted and used as a political pawn. what's the institutional way to think about this? how do we disincentivize this? >> i think as the biden administration has said, there's a fight ongoing globally in terms of democracy against authoritarianism. when you have someone like vladimir putin and you have individuals who lead governments and regimes, they will do whatever it is that is in their interest in terms of retaining and increasing their power. but if you're able to build up those democratic institutions and those legal institutions and countries, that is going to be

the best guarantee against the abuses that we're seeing taking placeen opt the global stage. so therefore, i think we have to deal straight forwardly with russia. we have to engage in these communications and dialogue about releasing prisoners and engaging in these swaps when we need to, when we have to. but at the same time, we want to continue to promote, as the united states has done for the last 100 years, the advancement of democracy and democratic principles around the globe because that is the only thing that really is going to prevent these authoritarian leaders from abusing the powers that they are able the to amass in their countries. >> that's tough in some societies, which have not enjoyed democracy for some time. they have not enjoyed a presidential election or whatever the case is. they used to tell me whenever i would interview him and say russians, he would stop me and say don't talk about russians. talk about the putin administration, the russian government and the authoritarian tendencies they have. there are a lot of ordinary

russians who would appreciate more freedom than you just described that they don't have in russia today. >> that's exactly right. i think that's one of the deep cynicism of putin and those who have enabled him for all these years is to conflate their own interests with that of all of the society. that's the tragedy of so many authoritarian countries. i have known him well over the last couple daek decades. he was always on optimist about the russian people. he did not have to go back to russia after the invasion. he was here in the united states. he chose to do so because he believed that there were many russians, thousands, even millions of russians who opposed putin's attack on ukraine and who would want to have a partner and leadership and the ability to continue to organize and speak out. i think you have to be an optimist of a certain extent to go into politics in a country

like russia. i don't know if they want expected exact lut fate that awaited him, but having already been twice poisoned even before the invasion of ukraine, i think that he did have something like that in mind. i have to say it really struck me in the gut to see these images of him today looking so ill really and traumatized, obviously, by this experience. it's a miracle that he survived in a way that alexei na value ny did not. >> he would have been part of this deal if we were alive. >> thank you so much. we appreciate you starting us off on this important day. when we come back, more on those freed today in this feat of diplomacy. the political activist bill prouder was with one of those who were unjustly held prisoners

just before he returned to russia. they had dinner just days before the arrest two years ago. he joins us coming up on his friend's safe return home. we're also joined by michael mcfall on the good news. we'll talk with him about his friend alexei navalny, who died a political prisoner earlier this year. and donald trump has once again reset the 2024 presidential campaign to be about race. those stories and more when "deadline: white house" continues right after this break. don't go anywhere. ues right afts break. don't go anywhere. during the wise buys sales event, get two progressives and a comprehensive eye exam for just $129.95. book an exam online today. i have moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. thanks to skyrizi, i'm on my way with clearer skin. 3 out of 4 people achieved 90% clearer skin at 4 months. and skyrizi is just 4 doses a year after 2 starter doses. serious allergic reactions and an increased risk of infections

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speaking out against the russian government and against this war and invasion from russia? >> the dangers, we all the know the price of the regime. this is the price of freedom. this is the price of opposing the putin regime. i myself, as you have mentioned, have been twice poisoned by the russian federal security service. there are many people who want our country to be a normal european state. it would be demoralizing if those of us in the public faces of the pro democracy movement would all just leave the country. russia is my country. russia is my home. this is where i have to be. >> this is the price of freedom. that's what he said. we did not know that at the time of the interview, but that was one of the last that vladimir would give before being arrested. the next day he was arrested in russia. a fate would befall him.

a hero to the russian people the and around the world. he was serving a 25-year sentence for treason. his crime was speaking out against the war in ukraine. he has survived multiple poisonings. he was being held in solitary confinement where there were grave concerns for his health. among those who were concerned, the human rights activist who dedicated his life to exposing putin's corruption and abuse. last month when he was knighted by king charles, he dedicated the honor toed dissidents killed. for bill, this is personal. he's a long-time friend of the family. he has had a front row seat to their suffering and the astonishing diplomatic feat that has resulted in his release. joining me now is the ceo of herm taj capital, which seeks to

expose corruption. bill, what's going through your mind? what are you feeling? what did you feel when you got the news? >> i don't get too emotional most of the time, but i cried tears of joy in relief that vladimir was coming home. you need to understand that vladimir would have died in that prison in solitary confinement. he suffers from the after effects of the two poisoning attempts. and doctors said he was really on a very nasty downward trajectory. a few weeks ago, he disappeared into the prison hospital system. nobody whew where he was. we thought for a few days he might have died. it's such a relief that he's on his way home to be with his family right now. i can't even describe the emotions. it's just overwheming. >> have you had a chance to

speak with his wife? we spoke to her a few months ago. the bravery of being a spouse and partner to somebody like that, like alex alexei navalny's wife. >> she spent the last two years on the road 95% of the time. they have three children. you can see them there in that piture. the father was in russian prison. the mother was on the road with me a the lot of the time going to parliaments, going to governments trying to find ways of raising his profile and getting him out of prison. so the three children had to live with the grandparents. they didn't see their parents at all. it was a terrible thing for everybody in the family. nobody knew when vladimir would emerge. he had in the total two years in detention, they allowed him one 15-minute telephone call with

his three children, five minutes each. that's the only contact he had with his family. in the meantime, he was suffering. he lost a third of his body weight. he could no longer feel his feet, which was is a symptom of the poisoning. he was a disaster. and it felt like there was nothing we could do. it was really horrible. >> i played a little bit of the interview on april 10th. he was arrested on april 11th, 2022. just before i interviewed him, he had just landed in russia. before he landed, he was with you. you were out for dinner with your wife and his wife. you begged him not to go back. what was that conversation like? >> as we said, they tried to kill him in 2015 and 2017 with poison. he survived both poisoning attempts, but barely. he was in coma. it was a horrible thing. and the war started and i was invited to give a speech at a fundraiser for victims of the

war in ukraine. and he had said i'm coming through london, i'm in town. i said come and join me at this venue and you can give a speech as well. he did. afterwards, we went out to dinner. i said what are your plans now? he said, i'm going back to moscow. and my heart sank because i knew that something terrible was going to happen to him. i said the worst case they kill you. the best case, they send you to prison. and he said the same thing to me that he said on your clip, which is that he's a russian politician. this is his country. how can he lead the people if he's too afraid to go to his own country. i begged him. i tried every possible thing to talk him out of it. he was completely unpersuadeed. he went back on your show and on cnn. he called putin a war criminal and the next day they arrested him. they gave him the longest prison

sentence that any political prisoner has gotten, which is 25 years. part of the reason is he was involved in getting the act passed that he and i worked on together. >> hang on a second. i have vice president harris coming to the microphones in houston 37 let's listen in for a second. >> they were unjustly held in russia will soon be reunited with their loved ones. they and their families have shown incredible courage in the face of the devastating journey. russian authoriies arrested, convicted them in sham trials and sentenced them to long prison terms. this has been an appalling proversion of justice. over many years, president biden and i and our team have engaged in complex diplomatic negotiations to bring these

wronglyfully detained americans home. we never stopped fighting for their release. today in spite of all of their suffering, it gives me great comfort to know that their horrible ordeal is finally over. this exchange also includes the release of russian prisoners, including those who worked with alexei navalny. i spoke with alexei's widow to discuss the significance of their release. as i told her, this being an additional time from previous conversations with her, the united states stands with all of those who are fighting for freedom in russia. as we sill cel brat today's news, we must also keep front of mind that there are other americans that are unjustly being held in places around the world. we will never stop fighting for their release. as vice president, it has been my honor to work alongside our president joe biden to bring

home more than 70 americans in the last 3 1/2 years. we will never waiver in our commitment to bring home every american who has been wrongfully detained or held hostage. that is my solemn commitment to my fellow americans, which i will always honor. thank you all. >> that was kamala harris. that's her first comment today, and it was very specific about the release of the hostages. bill, you have spent a lot of time thinking about how vladimir putin and his cronies work. we can understand why a lot of these other hostages were released. why would they release vladimir? he's the proverbial thorn in their side. he's going to come back. he was writing while he was in prison. he's not going to stop because of this.

this is a guy that wasn't going to stop even though he was likely to die. >> he's definitely not going to stop. i just got a leter from prison that he's learning spanish. the reason he's learning spanish is he wants to go down to latin america and get countries to pass the act to freeze the assets of the putin regime and other russian criminals. so i'm sure that once he recovers physically from his ordeal, he and i will be back at it. so why did putin do this? i think it's very simple. putin got a good deal here. let's not mince words. he got a bunch of very bad guys taken out of prisons in the west. the main guy he wanted was a cold-blooded killer. a state asin. and he was sitting in germany in prison after getting caught doing an assassination. there's a bunch of other russian

criminals convicted of money laundering, spying, arms trading, and putin hoovered up all sorts of killers and got them all out in exchange for a bunch of innocent people. now why did he let vladimir go? he wanted them pretty bad. there was an image i just saw of the russian plane arriving in moscow with all these people on board. it was like a hero's welcome. putin was at the airport hugging the killer, hugging a murder. that tells you everything about who vladimir is and who his regime is all about. >> vladimir is not a hero there and to people who know the work he's done, but he's been a hero here in the united states. he was close friends with the late senator john mccain. john mccain the called him a brave, outspoken and relentless advocate for freedom and democracy in russia. he was a pallbearer at john mccain's funeral.

you spoke a little bit about the fact once he gets the proper medical treatment he needs and comes back, he will be on the road again. what's the future like for a guy like vladimir, given that you have had this conversation with him, given that he did get jailed. does he go back full steam and start doing what he's doing in terms of fighting the russian regime? >> he will go back full steam. the one thing he won't do is go back into russia. that's not going to happen. he's not going to go back to russia. but he's going to work with all sorts of western governments on sanctions, on helping other political prisoners and on creating the infrastructure so that when the putin regime falls, there's an opportunity for democracy in russia where he and some of the other oposition leaders who have been freed today can be the leaders of a democratic, free and peaceful russia in the future.

that's what a lot of people hope is that reasonable people can the leaders of russia. not these criminals. not these murder who is are currently there. >> always good to see you. i didn't expect that you and i would ever have this conversation. i'm really glad that we're having a conversation on the day that vladimir has been released. bill, we appreciate your time. up next, we'll turn to the presidential race here at home and donald trump's latest strategy of nonstop racist and personal attacks against kamala harris. that's next. rsonal attacks agai harris that's next. other aqua-aerobics. yup. most health insurance companies see us all the same: smiley seniors golfing, hiking... don't forget antiquing. that's why i chose humana. they see me, not a stereotypical senior. i'm pre-diabetic, so i talked one-on-one with a humana health educator who really helped me. now i'm taking free cooking and meditation classes. not aqua-aerobics? better care begins with listening. humana. a more human way to healthcare. from pep in their step to shine in their coats,

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sheila jackson lee was a change maker. she worked with all her heart to lift up the people of her city, of her state, and of our nation. and to honor her memory, let us continue to fight to realize the promise of america, a promise of freedom, opportunity and justice. not just for some, but for all. [ applause ] >> vice president kamala harris the earlier today eulogizing sheila jackson lee, talking about the trail she blazed in politic, promising to continue her legacy. now this comes as harris continues to make history with her run for the presidency. the dnc began the process of nominating her as the first black nominee for president with

a virtual role call. but as harris continues to energize voters and break barriers, she's faced attacks from the former president of the united states donald trump. yesterday trump lashed out questioning her racial heritage saying that she was indian, but quote, then all of a sudden she made a turn and became a black person. an attack he continued today. for the record, kamala harris is black and indian. donald trump may not know it, but it's actually possible to be both. vice president harris last night responded to donald trump once again proving himself to be one of the most predictable bigots in professional politics. listen to what she said. >> it was the same old show. the divisiveness and the disrespect. let me just say, the american people deserve better. the american people deserve better.

the american people deserve a leader who tells the truth, a leader who does not respond with hostility and anger when confronted with the facts. we deserve a leader who understands that our differences do not divide us. they are an essential source of our strength. >> joining the conversation with me at the table is editorial board member mara gay. and strategist basil smikle. thank you for being here. now that we're over the shock of what happened yesterday, because it was shocking even though you expected what was going to happen. what do you make of it? what was going on there? what was donald trump's goal and intent when he sat down? >> sure. i surely believe that he went

with the intention of showing himself and his hardest core right wing supporters that he is fully ready to put black people in their place, particularly black women. i think as weird as this was to some people, it's not weird to me. it's familiar. i think for a lot of black americans, the experience of somebody saying to you, a white person saying to you, oh, you think you can be fully american. you think you deserve this job, you're just a dei hire. you don't belong here. whatever you want to go there with. that's what this was about. i also believe it was an attempt to change the conversation, which had been largely focused on kamala harris' election of the democratic party. i think he personally needed a serotonin rush. this is his comfort. this is where he's comfortable. this is his red meat. it's also all he has to offer the american people.

it's a reminder that it's the same old playbook. hateful, dividing america, i don't believe most americans want that formative nature of what we saw. yesterday is really important. >> if you didn't watch and and heard the words, you'd think it was strange. but when you watched how he did it, it was a different experience. >> this was an attempt to say him calling the vp not black or someone who just turned black. that's an attempt to say in a country where white men have largely, historically defined who is black, who is white, anything they want them to be. it's an attempt to say you don't get to define who you are. i get to say who you are. you think you can be president. you think you can be a black woman and be a journalist, you're nothing. that's what that was. >> all three of us at the table would have backgrounds with

donald trump would find challenging to describe. you yourself are not in one box. you find yourself in that something. >> as a child of jamaican immigrants, he has this history of oring. you don't fit in very cleanly into this box that i'm creating for you to be able to check off. and i have said yesterday, he wants to be the arbiter of blackness. he wants to be the arbiter of what is racially acceptable the. we have seen this before. he did this with barack obama. he created birtherrism. he's too up. what he's saying is i'm going -- i know you better than you know yourselves. and i'm going to dictate how you need to fall in line so that you can be more acceptable to the larger audience. if you don't think that has

policy trails, look at florida. look at the attempts to try to change k-12 curriculum, trying to say that, no, we're going to change the language of your african american studies exam to make it sort of streamlined to this. >> and acceptable. >> acceptable and adhere to this rubric. think about the bill they tried to pass that was scheduled to take money away from college-based organizations like mine. it was the vice president's member to try to keep them from doing the civic engagement that they do. it's an attempt to create this singular narrative for america. you've got to coply. >> this is an important conversation to expand this into the policy, so we don't get caught up and talk about whether kamala harris is black or indian. no one is going anywhere. we'll be right back. no one is going anywhere we'll be right back.

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oh, the answers on your phone. what if you're heading low at night? [notifications ringing] wow, it can alert you?! and you can even track your goals. manage your diabetes with confidence with dexcom g7. the most accurate cgm. learn more at dexcom.com. this is somebody whose overture is to the black community consisted of i'm in the sneaker business. they will love that or more convictions now. maybe blacks will like me more. so i understand the standoffishness. i think it's standoffish shows. i'm glad people could see how unfiltered, how he thinking about these issues. >> let's examine that for a

sect. when you see who donald trump is filtered, you have to draw the line between what he says and what he's going to do. like last week, he told christians, vote now, you won't have to vote the next time. we have to take it for what it's worst. that's who he is and how he will govern. >> and that's how he did governs. yesterday i believe we saw the real donald trump. real interesting thing, political, my politics hat for a moment -- until joe biden dropped out of the race, he had in the polls seemed to make some headway just on the margins with non-white voters, especially black men. i think there was questions about what that might actually look like in november, anyway. i don't think there's a radical realignment afoot, but the problem is he got a different candidate than he planned on. when vice president vice president harris became the

front-runner, that all changed. so what he's done now, and we saw this yesterday, is changed tactics. he's no longer making the overtures he was to these xhungs, which, by the way, deeply offense up and unserious. it was pandering to who he thinking black people look like and act like. that was nonsense. i think he's been doing his best impression of someone lately who likes black people and respects women. yesterday, we saw the real donald trump, who has no such views. >> what do you think comes of this? we're not going to discuss her background for all that long. >> no. he wanted us to, the whole point, to get you into a debate you know, the two things that i try to remember in all of this, one, to your point, there is policy coming from this, should he ever become president of the united states. it's already being done.

he's already done it. it's being done in the states by governors that are aligned with his vision, especially project 2025, this notion that american can for everybody -- i guess, for people of color, be the authors of their own narrative, but apparently we can't be that, according to his view. but the political outcome i don't think he's prepared for is it is defense of kamala harris. one of the most impactful things i heard today, and i want to get this brother's name right, past ore t.k. anderson from houston, texas, said that while he might have been concerned about her candidacy, as a black man, he could not stand around and watch this black woman be attacked by a white man who is so incredibly unqualified to be in office. you know, that 30 years in politics all went out the window

emotionally, i felt that comment. i think what donald trump is not counting on and trying to tramp down now is the emotion at, visceral reaction that a lot of black voters to what he is doing and has always done. there's another element to this. donald trump reposted something about kamala harris's birth certificate. there's references of her being canadian -- nothing wrong with that, she spent a few years as a child there, but it plays into this sensement that's echoed through the maga -- >> it's anti-immigrant, but i think it's deeper than that, essentially red meat to, i think, again the most extreme part of the base that is not only seine orphobic and anti-immigrant, but also obsessed with christian

nationalism, with the white birthrate, with keeping america white, at least even culturally. it's a thumb in the face to the american that exists now. i mean, how do you claim to be a patriot when you don't even love the country that we live in? you don't see american citizens as american, let alone immigrant who, by the way, we have a long, proud history of welcoming immigrants. i think it's really dark, much darker than a lot of people have been kind of talking about. it's not just weird, it's dark. i also just ban to say, one thing we haven't mentioned in this conversation is, every minute that donald trump is not just talking, you know, saying racist things but hitting his opponent, every moment he's making this about kamala harris is a moment we're not talking about the radical republican agenda that is deeply unpopular with the american people.

>> which i carry with me, to never forget. this is the weirdly name man dade. 922 pages of project 2025. donald trump is running away from this. they are prehe pro tending that they have nothing to do with this, but -- >> he stood on the stage with the heritage foundation. you can't run away from that. what is incredible important to note is it's not just words on a page. they're providing the intellectual, academic foundation for all of this, but there are wealthy business leaders lined up to fund everything in that packet. >> in the first 180 days. six months. >> it's not a ten-year plan. it's 180 days, stuff that can be enacted even if it's not donald trump saying it himself.

it's governors, it's congress, it's an instruction manual, with incredible amount of detail that is said to be funded. that is important for folks to note. >> mari, you're absolutely right. however much time we talk about donald trump and whatever racist stupid thing he did, we have to remember, there's a policy. if he vote for him, don't be surprised if, in 180 days, a batch of your rights disappear. the next hour of "deadline: white house" starts right after this quick break. "deadline: white house" starts right after this quick break (♪♪) [shaking] itchy pet? (♪♪) with chewy, save 20% on your first pharmacy order

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i responsibility a lot of time with the families of evan, paul, and alsu, as most of the time those are tough conversations but -- excuse me -- today was a very good today. on a powerful and emotional day. three united states citizens and one united states green cardholder had been released from russia. they are not free. their release is part of one of the biggest prisoner swaps in history. it took many months and many rounds of negotiations across seven names. they'll be greeted by president joe biden and vice president

harris too many. kara-murza is flying to germany, where he will meet with his family. president biden met with the families of those just freed earlier in the white house. he then spoke to the work that went into the swap and the ongoing fight for political freedom. >> it says a lou about the united states that we work relent leslie to free americans. it also says a lot about us that this still includes the release of russian political prisoners. they stood up for democracy, human rights, their own leader threw hem in prisons. the united states helped to release them as well. that's who we are in the united states. we stand for freedom, liberty, for justice, not only for our own people, but for others as well. that's why all americans can take pride in what we achieved today. in the last our we got a statement from evan's family -- -

a moment of celebration for the families will soon have their loved ones back home, but one is bittersweet, as we learned that alexi navalny was

supposed to have been died back in february in a penal colony. his wife tweeted out this statement -- no one should be held hostage by pulen, tortured or die in his prison. freedom to all political prisoners. end quote. that's where we start this hour can admiral john kirby. thank you for being with us. let's just start, this is a great day. a number of innocent people were released from unjust -- we call them prisoners, but essentially hostages of the russian government. >> yeah, wrongfully detained and health, obviously under trumped-up charges. they were innocent of everything they were accused of, and quote, unquote tried in the russian

judicial system. so we're glad they're released and went home. >> how this came to be, everyone talked to today, explained that these are complicated matters even when there's just two parties involved. this involved seven nation. this was multi-lat rat, very delicate, had to be kept under wraps. tell me what you can tell me about how this came to be. >> this particular deal was months in the making. you're right, there had been movement in some ways. where we thought we would get mr. navalny in this deal, and then of course he dies in a russian prison. that threw the discussions and negotiations and our planning askew. we now had to find a different path to try to get everybody home. not an impossible past, clearly, but it certainly required extra work by the team moving in a different direction to try to

put this deal together. because it was multi-lat rat, involving so many different countries and so many different individuals, it did take longer to put it all together. it absolutely couldn't have happened without the personal involvement of the president himself. just one hour two sundays ago, right before he announced he wasn't going to seek reelection, he was on the phone with the chancellor of slovenia, kneeling the last-minute details down. >> you know president biden well. that's absolutely completely on brand for him. this is where he thrives, try to make a difference, leverage his decades of experience in terms of negotiations and relations. >> yeah. >> he made a comment today about how alliances, allies and friends matter. that's an important thing for americans to be considering right now, in a world where it

could go two ways. >> you know, there's an old says all politics is local. the president believes all foreign policy is personal. if you don't invest in the agenda you're advancing around the world, that means investing in these allianceances and partnerships. jake soul value said it very well. there's not too many leaders in the world that could have put this together and get this as a result than somebody with the vast experience and relationship of joe biden. >> let's talk about what's happening in the next few hours. as emotional as jake sullivan want in that news conference, this is going to be an emotional night when people see the plane land, whether you knew them or not, or whether you ever read evan's work or not, watching people in jail for hundreds, if not thousands of days like paul

whelan, watching that is something. >> they'll come home from andrews air force base, and the families will finally get a chance to wrap their arms around them, tell them they love them, and make sure they know they'll be with them the rest of their lives. i think the emotion will certainly run high. none of these individuals had any business being in a russian prisons to begin with. to know they're free and will get the care they need and love and support of their family will make all the difference in the world. it would be a very impactful evening. >> i had trouble when i saw the news this morning hearing it come together, and i won't tonight. this is kind of what russia does, kind what iran does, china does in some instances, north korea does it.

there's been discussions how do you achieve this success and at the same time not yet incentivize in this behavior. >> i think that's an open question, that that preseptember -- precept is actually true. the truth is we haven't seen data that confirms that's the case. even when you're not negotiating deals, bad actors are still taking hostages. it is, as you said, what they do. whether they're seeking a specific point of leverage or not, which is why the state department has a designation for countries, telling you the detention risk if you go. we encourage americans to take a look, and absolutely don't go to russia right now. >> there's a "d" on the state department website, there's a high risk of detention. what's going on in the middle

east at the moment? there's concern of retaliation from iran about -- after the assassination of haniya, the political head of hamas. what are you preparing for? what do americans need to think about? >> if you hear them talking about avenging, taking action, we can't just look the other way. we have to take those comments and rhetoric seriously. iran has already proven they're capable and willing of conducting a major attack. certainly they have proven capable of supporting groups like hamas, hezbollah, and houthis in the region. i won't talk details, but we will maintain the capability to defend our national interests in the region. at the moment, is there any change in our position of what

we're preparing for that you can tell me about? >> i will just tell you throughout the middle east, we are constantly looking at force protection of our people, facilities and adjusts as necessary. that happens even today. what that looks like, of course, we're not going to talk about that publicly, but we are taking all necessary precautions, and making sure we have the capabilities that we need to defend ourselves and defend our allies and partners in the region. admiral, good to see you. thank you for joining us this afternoon. john corily. let's bring in michael mcfaul, and anne simmons. welcome to both of you. anne, it's agreed to see you again. i always worry we would never have this conversation we are having today. first of all, talk to me about the release of your colleague

evan and what you're thinking and feeling right now. >> ali, this is truly a momentous day for evan, his family and his family at the "wall street journal." we have waited 16 long and grueling months for this day to come. evan did not deserve to be in a russian prison. he remained resilient. he kept his head high, and basically the "wall street journal" went out of its way, really above and beyond, to ensure that evan's story remained front and center, and to ensure this day definitely did come. >> ambassador mcfaul, i want to ask you again, your thoughts about this, because for so many people, they are not just intellectually and political invested, but emotionally and personally invested, and i know you're one of them. >> i can talk as a former

diplomat, and three of my russian friends are now free. these are people i have known for decades, some of the bravest people i know. they went back. i remember you talked to them frequently. when he made that decision, not all of us thought it was a great decision. i don't know evan personally, but i have lots of footnotes to evanity in my next book. he is a fantastic reporter. that's part of 9 reason he was arrested. pewant doesn't want fantastic reporters working in his country. secondly, i worked on a spy swap -- this is not a spy swap, this is different, but i worked on the 2010 deal with the russians. it was extremely complex, difficult, negotiations inside our own government were just as hard. people did not want to give up

criminals to the russians. you add the complexity of all the countries involved here, especially this horrific killer in germany, that they pulled this off, this is a tremendous diplomatic achievement, first and foremost for the biden administration, but all of their counterparts in all the countries involved. i really tip my hat to them. anne, really i think you speak for journalists in general right now, this is a real thing. it used to be you had a job like yours, one of the crowning achievements of a journalistic career. now people, maybe they're punishing people by giving them the moscow bureau chief job. it's a dangerous world now. tell me houses you and the journal of thinking about this. >> well, it certainly is a challenge to be a journalist

inside russia, when you know you can just be picked up. certainly the detention of evan and his conviction shun created a chilling effect for all journalists working there. it's already challenging. mr. putin's government does not want you to call the war a war. journalists who speak to russians are often followed, and the interviewees themselves are often at risk for talking to foreign reporters. this has really changed the dynamic in russia. now you have to worry about being survail. now you have to worry about if i will be picked up for the most innocuous thing. will i be followed? will the people i speak to be at risk? this is a really challenging time. it's sad, because it's important to know what's going on in

russia. there's a lot of good people in russia. people still want to know about the personal stories of russians, how they're coping on a daily basis, but it's almost impossible now tots give that true picture because of the risks involved. >> this is an interesting appoint, ann, that you make, and ambassador, this is a point that kara-murza would make to me. don't talk about the russians, talk about the russian administration, the putin administration. there's 150 million russians, and most are of them are people like everyone else in the world. they just want prosperity and a bright future. they're not the problem. the government is the problem. >> well, that's true but not all russians are innocent, i want to say that. the russians that chose to stay and provide billions in taxes and build weapons, they're

helping, and that is a choice one has to make, but it's a difficult take. let's remember all the journalists, including one who got arrested for just trying to do her job while visiting her mother. that's a choice you make. i have hundreds of friends who live in exile still trying to report the truth. the point that ann made, it's much harder to do that from lithuania, germany or washington, d.c. than inside russia. that's dangerous just for us to understand russia. the putin administration and russians, which is a complex place that shouldn't be simplified, and saw arussians are putin. they are not. >> that's a good way to put it. ann, let's talk about what this means for russia. on the one hand, one would argue russia got a good deal.

there were a few people convicted -- wrongfully convicted perhaps, and released in exchange for people who are actually convicted of things. how does it play in russia? >> certainly president putin will be spinning this as a victory, as a success for russia and for him personally. he will be showing russian people that despite the fact that the west has tried to isolate him, he's still able to make a deal and bring russians home. that's how he's going to spin it. he's going to say those who were released had to beg my pardon. he actually issued pardons for them. as we know, most of them -- all of them did nothing wrong. evan gershkovich was doing his job. so putin will look at it as a victory and will make sure the

russian population will see it that way. alexi navalny was part of this negotiation, and then he died in the russian prison under circumstances that none of us have ever -- it's not clear to any of us why he died in that prison. tell me about this. >> it's bittersweet, for sure, for the navalny family and the organ asian. we got some people out, these a victory. anybody who gets out of the putin's dictatorship and prisons, is a day to celebrate. but certainly, he was supposed to be part of this deal. i was at the munich security conference talking to iuliia the night before he was killed because there was a sense this might be happening. so one moment they're

celebrating their friends and colleagues who got out, but of course it's very bittersweet that alexi is not one of them. we appreciate both of your times today. thank you for joining us. when we return we'll get back to the other political day, how president trump's continuing comments is resetting the campaign. a laughable effort from trying to distance himself from project 2025. his own vice presidential running mate wrote the foreword to a new book written by the architect of the project. don't go anywhere. of the project don't go anywhere. ♪♪ i take once-daily jardiance ♪♪ ♪♪ at each day's staaart. ♪♪ ♪♪ as time went on it was easy to seeee, ♪♪ ♪♪ i'm lowering my a1c! ♪♪

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for many people, donald trump's epic meltdown yesterday calling into question vice president harris' identity -- not a surprise, he called into question where barack obama was born. it laid bare the difficulty of running the campaign without reversing to racism. however, the vice president is seeing right through his attempts. according to "the washington post," quote, the vice president's aides and supporters instruments that the response on wednesday and her coming days does not have to be forceful. his own language couldsh letting the remarks stand on his own in

contrast, could prompt many voters to recoil, while harris can focus on issues that voters care about. joining our conversation is barack obama's 2012 came jim messina, and kim atkins-store, and president of brilliant corners research, cornel belcher. what do we call this when you're on tv at 5:24? good afternoon to all of you. jim, this is an interesting point. right out the gate, kamala harris talked about hope, looking forward, and not looking back, and frankly in these dour times, while democracy is on the line, it's a good message. there is something to be said for donald trump to wallow in his own darkness by himself. >> absolutely, ali. i think part of what we need to do here is just remind people

who donald trump is. part of him not going on social media, not doing a bunch of bur views that normal voters see, they forgot about some of these crazy comments. part of the theory of the harris campaign is about excitement, about hope, and also reminding people how crazy donald trump is, and do you really wasn't four more years of this? donald trump is just playing right into that narrative. >> yeah. the velocity of this nonsense, kim, is remarkable, right? this was yesterday, tomorrow night another rally, we'll have a lot of stuff to talk about saturday, saturday night there's built erally. remember a week and a half ago he was talking about sharks, electric shocking and batteries? there is something to him doing this, because we need to not talk about it. we need to talk about things like project 2025, and remind people about the actual dangers, how trump's stuff he says does actually translate into policy.

>> we do, and so i think two things are going on here. i think the narcissist in trump enjoys the fact we're talking about him again. we were talking about joe biden, and then kamala harris, and then talking about jd vance for a long time in the news cycle, the week before his appearance, and now we are talking about him in the nasty way that we have known him to be for 20 years, attacking people of color, making these really baseless birther claims against kamala harris. you're right, it not only puts his attention back on him, but it makes it harder to do what needs to be done in the election, which is casting the comparison, the contrast between the two. both in personal and in policy, as you're pointing out with project 2025. the more we talk about trump's comments, we're not talking about jd vance wanting to use the comstock act in the same way

that project 2025 lays out to make abortion access difficult nationwide. so, in that way, it's a distraction, right? i think that dam laharries is handling it right. anything he says, she can simply saying, immediate me on the debate stage and say it to my face. in the meantime sheer working on america's free domgs and taking it back. >> cornel, you spend a lot of time measuring how people feel about thinks messages. there's nothing about donald trump that particularly surprises you, except he gets more brash. let's talk about the kamala harris campaign, and the various things she's hitting, the discussions about the future,

the discussions about the hope and the concerns about our freedoms, including preproductive freedoms. how is it panning out? >> look. if you look at the data right now, it's paying out pretty well. i've been doing this for a while, back when my hair was completely black. i have never seen what i think you're seeing right now. if you look at the data right now over the span of, like, two weeks, sheet gone from a negative do a net positive phase. jim and i have been doing politics a long time. i don't think either one of us have seen such a dramatic turnaround in such a short period of time, all done basically on social media, and this happened even before they started spending millions on campaigning. the more americans get to know and see vice president harris, the more they like her.

that's probably the reason why the trump campaign is panicking now, and they want this to be a conversation about race, and a distraction. i'm just reminded of a quote by tony morrison, the function of racism is distraction. for the last two days, we've been distracted. >> i can't believe that you admitted your hair used to be black and then turned white, given what trump said yesterday. you're just inviting fodder. people are getting to know kamala harris. she was a senator, an attorney general, been the vice president, but in truths this is the truth that people are regularly hearing from her with cadence and velocity. tell me what you make of it. >> you know, look, the numbers here are important. swing voters think about politics four minute as week with an average of 2 1/2 jobs. >> wow. they're waiting to see what this new candidate is. i agree with cornel, i have not

seen movement like this in the poll numbers. part of it is just her enthusiasm, her hope, how excited she is. just kind of taking it right to the american voters, saying, hey, we can do this together. in contrast to trump, that's what americans, and especially democrats want so badly. they just want somebody to talk about the future. the campaign will get harder in these next 96 days, we won't have the honeymoon beefed, but so far she's had as good of ten days as i have seen in american politician. we're going to take a quick break and come back. when we return, we'll talk about the feeble efforts by the trump campaign to run away from project 2025. to run away from project 2025

this is the craziest fear tactic they're using right now. i think most persons do not care about project 2025. >> most american couldn't care less? these it, by the way, 9 it 2 pages. i had it bound in two volumes. there's a lot of stuff in here. you're going to care about it. it just takes a while to get through it. this whole discussion didn't begin well when jd vance was added to the ticket. the efforts to distance themselves was laughable. the campaign was bashing it.

even the project is trying to calm the storm around the extreme plan to end democracy and consolidate power under donald trump. it's j.t. vance who continuing to complicate things, by writing a foreword of a book of the founder of the heritage foundation. vance's foreword leads little room. it's a glowing endorsement of robert's ideas that he calls an essentially weapon in the fights that lay ahead. vance writing that the heritage foundation has been the most influential engine of ideas for republicans from ronald reagan to donald trump, but roberts believes doing the same old thing could lead to the ruin of our nation. end quote. joins of americans for -- angelo, thank you for interesting with us. what a met.

they went to all the trouble to write the 925-page volume to make sure they recruited people from donald trump's actual orbit to headline these chapter, and now they can't run away from it fast enough. >> a lot of the distance that trump and vance is having is the most you can get is arm's length. it's still connected. there is no way to separate it out. fundamentally part of the thing to consider here is project 2025 is more than just a book, more than just a policy. even the shutdown efforts demonstrates tao. it's policy, it's personnel, for how you restaff the government, all the training, and then the fourth park, this is the biggest link, is the playbook, the 180-day playbook. that's the last pillar, the step-by-step guide to implement

the policy. the book that's already written that they announced they have now shut down, written by ross vaught, the same guy they nom dated to be on the campaign policy committee. that tells you all you need to know about the significance of that. >> you made a couple points that i think are useful. we're in the early days of understanding project 2025. it's a terrible read. people won't read it for themselves, but we'll break down every single chapter and -- this is not a ten-year project. this is six months from inauguration today. number two, all the chapters in here are written by people in trump's orbit, or at least most of them are. >> that's right. >> yeah, that was by design. let's keep in mind that in april 2022, right part when project 2025 was get off the ground, trump went to a heritage foundation event, and he

announced -- not only did he praise roberts, who runs the foundation, but he announced the heritage foundation would launch a initiative that lays both the policy and the ground work for his new administration in 2025. so, he announced project 2025 in april 2022, that's the part that's significant about this. it is really the plan for how and what this administration will look like. when you look at, say, parts of the policy, it's the same stuff that trump has been saying, weaponizing the doj to go after split wall enemies. >> and they say it -- it's not even coded language. >> they do. they specifically talk with wokeness, doing this and able to orchestrate the government that establishing conservative priorities. it's not coded. >> no, it's not, one clear example, from this week alone.

one of the ways in which the project 2025 has identified -- one of the problems, firing person, being disqualified for working in government, if you went to a dei-related training when you were working for the government and did not explicitly object to the training, that's grounds for firing under project 2025 in a new trump administration. that's the same things that they fixate on, in public communication, this is the bedrock of that, it's spelled out in black and white. the part i just can't forget, we were never forget the main reason why we're even talking about this, the cast list for this discussion wasn't the book. it had been around for a while, but kevin roberts went out there and said it would be a bloodless revolution. they threatened violence. >> and then he came on our network and talked about it with my colleagues, and trump is

trying to disavow it, and kevin roberts and the heritage foundation's response was, well, that's just good politics for them. it's the weirdest, most dysfunctional relationship, but our viewers need to understand they have written down what they are going to do, so on day 180, after january 20th, please don't be surprised when your abortion rights are taken away in remaining states that you can, or various things happen. it's all written down here. this is what you're voting for. >> that's right. let's even concede the distancing, let's say they're severe about the distancing. yo-yo, but let's play it out. it won't matter. ultimately the personnel, the people that trump would have to hire when he gets into office, the only way for they have to staff the new administration is to go through the personnel

database that's been vetted, organized, implemented. the people will ultimately be the carriers of the project 2025 virus, whether trump disavows it or not, the personnel is the key factor here. >> 96 days to make sure americans understand this, or 96 days to read this thing. it's a painful exercise. angelo, good to see you. thank you. we're going to talk to our panel about all of this after a short break. our panel about all of this after a short break.

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heritage does such an incredible job. they're going to lay the groundwork and detailed plans for what our movement will do and what your movement will do when the american people give us a colossal mandate to save america. that's coming. that's coming. well, it's here. it's project 2025. jim, help me think about how to deal with it. as i said, it's a terrible read, it's designed to be a terrible read. it's 922 pages, nobody wants to read it. how do you think about it from a campaign perspective. how do you campaign against this very dangerous document. it's a policy document. by using the quotes and ideas in

it. part of the voters don't want is another january 6th, and in that document they call it a second american revolution will scare voters. getting rid of social security, medicare, going after abortion, these are all ideas that would freak american voters out. i expect the harris campaign to take it right to them. to your great reporting, there's no way for donald trump and jd vance to distance themselves from these ideas, from these people. they have endorsed all these people. jd vance wrote the foreword to the book, ali. it's just impossible to walk away from it. it's time to take they see crates ideas to the people and say, this is really what you want? four years of hope with kamala harris, or four years of craziness with donald trump and the wacky ideas. >> kim, you're my sister in journalist, but you're actually a sisters in law. part of the reason why it's a

difficult read, it's talking about the restructuring of government, but there's some dangerous tough in here. judge ludvig said to me yesterday, the problem with project 2025, if it starts being implemented, it becoming very hard to undo. it actually sets into motion a different format, different way of governsing that we haven't all signed on to. >> that's absolutely right. it is a structural change to the entire federal government it would broten the powers of the president so he would have direct control over agencies like the department of justice. he could essential order federal law enforcement into cities. it would broaden his hold over immigration and other areas that are supposed to be reserved for congress. it would really be a wholesale change from the bottom up. it's already started, ali.

i think it's important to point this out, by promising to really strip the federal employees benefits, make it harder for them to get raises, make it harder to get promotions unless it's done on a new merit system, by those in charge who decide what merit means. what is already happening is there's a lot of career people working in the federal government as experts, as others, who are taking other jobs, because they don't want to get purged, or if they're able to keep their jobs, no longer have vacation, pensions or retirement funds. that's already taking place. the difference here -- it's important to know that the heritage foundation has always put out policy proposals before an election. >> yes. >> that they want a rep to implement, but they got way over their skis in this, and they're so detailed, so focused in part because they wanted to keep the conservatives that backed trump

on board, as he gets more and more deranged, but they showed their hands. people are paying attention. in a post-roe world, they're paying attention. >> that's a major appointment. they've been putting out the leadership mandate since reagan, but i'm glad we're having a discussion, because there's been a absence of that in trump world for a long time. now we've got it, and it's super ugly. our job is to break it down and tell everybody what's in it. what does the campaign do? down tell everybody what's in it. >> i don't care how the campaign handles it. i'll tell you how we're dealing with it on the campaign trail. it's telling the democratic house campaign committee that's in charge of democratic house races across the country, they're putting out press releases tying republican house

members to project 2025. that's how you use it politically, and we are seeing across the country in races now not just at the top of the ticket, how do you tie republican senators and republican members of congress to these wildly humungously unpopular policy positions that are in this project 2025 and make them try to run away and distance themselves? you're absolutely seeing this on the campaign trail as a way to wedge and move voters away from republicans because it is, dare i say, weird stuff. >> yeah. thanks to all three of you. i really appreciate it. jim, kim, and cornell belcher. we appreciate you spending time with us. we'll be right back. appreciate with us. we'll be right back. than their. ♪ [smoke alarm] recipes written by hand and lost to time...

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with team usa taking silver in the 200 free style relay. this off her gold yesterday whrks she touched that wall more than ten seconds before the silver medallist. earlier in the day may have been a nail biter, but simone biles became the olympic all-around champion in women's gymnastics for the second time. one more note from paris. a familiar athlete to viewers of this program is back playing overseas. basketball star brittney griner is representing team usa at the olympics. it's an image almost impossible to imagine when the world watched as griner was detained in russia for nearly a year after the start of russia's war in ukraine. all in all a very heartening p scene, especially given the news of this day. another break for us. we'll be right back. his day. another break for us we'll be right back.

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thank you for spending part of your thursday with us. i'll be back tonight at 8:00 eastern filling in for chris hayes on "all-in." "the beat" with ari melber begins right now. i'll see you in a minute, ari. >> that's right. you're the leadoff guest. we'll show the people how that works. come on over. >> i'm on my way. >> thanks to him. welcome to "the beat." i'm ari melber. this is another historic day of news, and we use that word quite literally, as i'm sure you've noticed. this is a big development that's coming out of the biden/harris administration. a landmark exchange, freeing these four u.s. residents who the united states government has long maintained they were held