Washington Roundup: Historic swap frees Americans from Russia; Trump attacks Harris’ racial identity

WASHINGTON (OSV News) — In the largest prisoner exchange since the Cold War, officials of the United States, Russia, Germany and other countries swapped at least two dozen prisoners, including the American journalist Evan Gershkovich of The Wall Street Journal and Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine jailed for more than five years after baseless espionage convictions.

And former President Donald Trump sparked controversy during a panel interview at the National Association of Black Journalists conference.

Americans released from Russian captivity

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on Aug. 1 greeted Gershkovich, Whelan, and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty journalist Alsu Kurmasheva as they arrived on U.S. soil at Joint Base Andrews after the Biden administration and officials from nations including Russia, Belarus and Germany negotiated a prisoner swap.

Russia also released Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer and critic of the Kremlin, who was serving a 25-year sentence on baseless charges of treason.

Biden said in a statement, “Today, three American citizens and one American green-card holder who were unjustly imprisoned in Russia are finally coming home.”

Biden, the nation’s second Catholic president who recently made the historic decision to not to serve a second term, called the deal “a feat of diplomacy.”

“All told, we’ve negotiated the release of 16 people from Russia — including five Germans and seven Russian citizens who were political prisoners in their own country. Some of these women and men have been unjustly held for years. All have endured unimaginable suffering and uncertainty. Today, their agony is over,” Biden said.

Biden thanked allied nations who “stood with us throughout tough, complex negotiations to achieve this outcome — including Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Norway and Turkey.”

“This is a powerful example of why it’s vital to have friends in this world whom you can trust and depend upon. Our alliances make Americans safer,” he said. “And let me be clear: I will not stop working until every American wrongfully detained or held hostage around the world is reunited with their family.”

Biden said his administration has helped bring home over 70 Americans and that he had “no higher priority” than to bring home those Americans still in captivity.

Biden said the nation celebrates the return of the detainees and said that for others still wrongfully detained, he would “reaffirm our pledge to their families: We see you. We are with you. And we will never stop working to bring your loved ones home where they belong.”

Gershkovich was sentenced to 16 years in a maximum security prison after being found guilty of espionage in a case that both the U.S. government and his employer, The Wall Street Journal, called baseless, saying Gershkovich was in Russia as a reporter, not a spy.

In a joint statement Aug. 1, Wall Street Journal Publisher and Dow Jones CEO Almar Latour and Wall Street Journal Editor-in-Chief Emma Tucker announced: “Evan is free and on his way home.”

“We are overwhelmed with relief and elated for Evan and his family, as well as for the others who were released,” they said. “At the same time, we condemn in the strongest terms Vladimir Putin’s regime in Russia, which orchestrated Evan’s 491-day wrongful imprisonment based on sham accusations and a fake trial as part of an all-out assault on the free press and truth. Unfortunately, many journalists remain unjustly imprisoned in Russia and around the world.”

They continued: “Evan and his family have displayed unrivaled courage, resilience and poise during this ordeal, which came to an end because of broad advocacy for his release around the world.”

Russia received eight people in the exchange, including assassin Vadim Krasikov, two hackers and an alleged smuggler.

Trump questions Harris’ racial identity

At a July 31 panel interview at the National Association of Black Journalists’ annual convention in Chicago, Trump appeared to question his rival Harris’ racial identity. In response to questions about JD Vance’s lackluster start as his running mate, Trump said his vice presidential pick “does not have any impact” on the election.

Asked about some Republicans’ characterization of Harris as a “DEI hire” — a derogatory euphemism for a person hired by diversity, equity and inclusion programs that implies a lack of qualification for the job — Trump appeared to argue Harris was of Indian, not Black, descent.

“I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black and now, she wants to be known as Black. So, I don’t know, is she Indian or is she Black?” Trump said.

Harris was born in California as the daughter of immigrants to the U.S. Her father, a Stanford University professor emeritus, is Afro-Jamaican and her late mother, a scientist who did cancer research before her death in 2009, is Indian.

“She has always identified as a Black woman,” ABC’s Rachel Scott said. “She went to a historically Black college.”

“I respect either one. I respect either one,” Trump said. “But she obviously doesn’t because she was Indian all the way, and then all of a sudden she made a turn, and she went — she became a Black person.”

News reports going back decades show Harris, who graduated in 1986 from Howard University in Washington, among the most prestigious HBCUs (historically Black colleges and universities), has always publicly identified as being both Black and South Asian American.

Harris declined an invitation to appear at the conference and gave the eulogy at a funeral for the late Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, the same day. In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Harris said Trump’s remarks were “the same old show,” and added, “The American people deserve better than Donald Trump’s divisiveness and disrespect.”

Just weeks after his selection as Trump’s running mate, more Americans disapprove of Vance, Ohio’s junior senator and a recent convert to Catholicism, according to a 538 polling average.

Asked about controversial past comments Vance made about “childless cat ladies” running the country, Trump argued his running mate simply meant that “the family experience is a very important thing.”

“But that doesn’t mean that if you grow up and you grow older and you don’t meet somebody, that would be wonderful to meet and would have been good, that, that’s a bad thing. He’s not saying that. That would be my interpretation. You’ll have to ask him actually, but my interpretation is he’s strongly family-oriented,” Trump said.

Asked if he believed Vance would be “ready on Day 1” to assume the presidency if necessary, Trump did not directly answer.

“I think this is well documented historically, the vice president, in terms of the election, does not have any impact,” he said. “No impact.”

Kate Scanlon is a national reporter for OSV News covering Washington. Follow her on X (formerly known as Twitter) @kgscanlon.

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