certainly in britteny griner's case as well.ted about the fact that these are coming home. we recognize russia has other americans including mark foley. we want to make sure we get his last name right. but -- okay. we had previously said mark fogel. we got that from the national security advisor under trump and i believe that's correct. we're inconsistent and we'll work on that. steve hilton now, fox news contributor, steve. in a global sense we've accomplished something so much with all these other countries as well with their citizens that are going to be going home. your top line thoughts. >> i want to echo what you've been saying and all our guests. we celebrate for evan and the others and families, particularly evan and our colleague at the "wall street journal" and emphasize the point you made these are innocent people being exchanged for guilty people. hostage is the right word. my first thought when i heard this news, harris was to the political point that benjamin touched on earlier. why now? is there a connection with

britteny griner the high-profile case when she was taken prisoner and resulted in the swap of victor boots. a russian arms dealer and they busted him in southeast asia and considered a major prize. he went back to russia when griner came back home here. >> dana: there was criticism at the time because nobody could really understand why britteny griner would be the only one released at the time. gershkovitch wasn't in custody at that point but paul whelan was. his family has been stalwart and recognize them if you saw them. they've been on our air and evan's family, brave sister and wonderful friends who has kept his name in the news and also say this. from the moment he was taken, the "wall street journal" has been absolutely on the case. they had people dedicated 24/seven to making sure that he could come home and nobody forgot and we did that piece recognizing his days there, his one year in prison, and i think that we'll learn a lot in the coming days but i do think thanking the "wall street journal" for their leadership on this is important. >> bill: our building in mid town manh

we saw the same thing happened with britteny griner in 2022. they wanted to make sure they had everything secured and the information come out that way. for president biden, they've been vocal about their efforts to free both evan gershkovitch as well as paul whelan. he was arrested back in 2018. the administration was facing pressure every time there was a development with russia what about paul whelan and his situation and the administration said it was working every day to secure his release. then we saw what happened with the "wall street journal" reporter after his arrest and then what has transpired. the "wall street journal" has been public in trying to keep evan's name out there. we in the media have been doing our part. the correspondents dinner a spotlight to bring him home and other americans detained. the focus on evan from the media's perspective has been tremendous. president biden had put out a statement two weeks ago after evan had been convicted and sentenced to 16 years if prison and said it was a sham and felt something had t