'Utterly Horrible': Trump’s Putin claim ignites anger, again

Donald Trump, the Republicans’ 2024 presumptive presidential nominee and a convicted felon, is claiming Russian President Vladimir Putin will release a U.S. reporter arrested on espionage charges who the U.S. says is being wrongfully detained, if the American people elect him president again.

“Evan Gershkovich, the reporter for The Wall Street Journal who is being held by Russia will be released almost immediately after the election, but definitely before I assume office,” Trump says in a video (below) posted to his Truth Social account Tuesday. “He will be home, he’ll be safe. Vladimir Putin, President of Russia will do that for me. And I don’t believe he will do it for anyone else.”

President Biden has strongly denounced Russia’s unlawful imprisonment of Evan Gershkovich, and he and his administration have publicly discussed Russia’s detention of the reporter at least 38 times, most recently May 3, according to a count of documents on the White House’s website.

David Corn, Washington D.C. Bureau Chief for Mother Jones blasted Trump.

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“‘Vladimir Putin…will do that for me.,’ ” Corn wrote. “This is shameful. Trump boasting that a war criminal and tyrant will only release an American hostage if Trump is elected president. I’ve been saying this for eight years. There is no bottom.”

Former Dept. of Defense official Mike Walker responded by writing: “What Trump is really saying to Putin: ‘Don’t release the WSJ reporter UNLESS I win.’ He is condemning Evan to many months more in a Russian prison.”

Last month Trump made similar remarks.

“Trump did not refer to any contacts with Putin or say what grounds he had to believe that the Russian leader would release Gershkovich,” Reuters reported at the time. “His campaign did not address questions about whether Trump or his advisers had been in touch with Putin or his staff about Gershkovich. Instead, Steven Cheung, a Trump campaign spokesperson, said: ‘There is only one person who can negotiate the safe return of Mr. Gershkovich back to his family – President Trump.'”

“Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin has ‘naturally not had contacts with Donald Trump,'” Reuters added, noting remarks made by former U.S. Marine Trevor Reed, who was detained in Russia from 2019 to 2022: “As a former wrongful detainee in Russia, I would just like to remind everyone that President Trump had the ability to get myself and Paul Whelan out of Russia for years and chose not to. I would be skeptical of any claims about getting Evan Gershkovich back in a day.”

Last week the Bangor Daily News editorial board blasted the ex-president.

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“If Trump can secure the release of Gershkovich, he should do it now, not months from now,” the paper’s board wrote. “Trump may be trying to showcase his close relationship with Putin. Much has been written about the dangers of Trump essentially doing Putin’s bidding by valorizing the Russian president and his ruthless rule and opposing and undermining U.S. support for Ukraine, which Russia invaded in February 2022. Trump has also not been a champion of journalists, calling the press the ‘enemy of the people.’ He also refers to the ‘fake news media,’ to try to debunk reporting he doesn’t like.”

“Back to dangling Evan’s freedom as a political tool,” wrote National security Attorney Brad Moss, who also remarked: “Paraphrasing Trump to Evan’s family: I could help get him home now but I only care if I win. If I lose, I don’t care if he lives or dies.”

Former Republican U.S. Congressman Joe Walsh responded to Trump’s video, saying simply, “He’s an utterly horrible human being.”