Joe Biden is under fire from critics and conservative media for having made what many fear will be the worst prisoner swap of the century, swapping convicted international gun trafficker Viktor Bout for jailed American female basketball star Brittany Griner.
Many observers are wondering what will happen next, and nobody thinks it will be good.
Speaking over the weekend to Fox News, former DEA Special Operations Director Derek Maltz was incensed, contending the Bout-Griner trade was “not being supportive of global security issues.” He also pointed to the hypocrisy.
“The Biden administration is pro-gun control every time there’s a shooting,” Waltz said. “Gun control. Gun control. Now, we just released the biggest trafficker that I’ve ever heard of in the world back to Russia in the middle of a war where they’re killing all these innocent people in Ukraine. How ironic and how disgusting is that?”
His point was probably not lost by Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, who had issued a statement blasting Biden’s deal.
“It is simply mind-boggling that Joe Biden could release the world’s most dangerous arms trafficker while at the same time continuing his crusade to disarm American citizens,” Gottlieb said. “The hypocrisy is staggering.”
CCRKBA noted Biden’s recent vow to press for a ban on so-called “assault weapons” before control of the U.S. House transfers to Republicans next month. The organization said Biden’s “world-class hypocrisy is on full display.”
“Joe Biden has spent his 50-year political career trying to disarm American citizens by eroding the Second Amendment,” Gottlieb stated. “Yet, to appease his far-left base, he just traded a true international super-villain for a basketball player who was prosecuted for having a controlled substance in her luggage. While it’s nice a U.S. citizen is free, the consequences of this trade could be horrendous.
“From this moment forward,” he continued, “the president has surrendered any semblance of credibility on the subject of guns, crime and gun control, so he can pack his sanctimony away and just drop the charade. Joe Biden is willing to sacrifice global public safety for political points.”
Politico on Monday reported that Biden “has acknowledged that the swap wasn’t exactly fair,” calling Griner an “inadvertent criminal” while Bout is “an experienced, lethal one.”
The story quoted Maltz, stating, “The Merchant of Death is back in Action.”
Gottlieb went so far as saying Biden should be impeached.
“Biden is fine with arming the enemies of freedom while disarming the people who fight for firearms freedom,” Gottlieb said. “He should be impeached for violating our constitutional Second Amendment rights.”
As earlier reported, Biden’s chances of getting a gun control package passed between now and the end of the year are slim. Leading Capitol Hill gun control proponents are not likely to make an effort. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) acknowledged there are not the 60 votes necessary.
