CNN’s Jonah Goldberg Ridicules JD Vance’s ‘Very Stupid’ Take on Putin Releasing Evan Gershkovich

Jonah Goldberg slammed Donald Trump’s VP nominee JD Vance’s “very stupid” opinion on Vladimir Putin’s release of Evan Gershkovich.

Following the release of the Wall Street Journal reporter, Vance told CNN reporter Steve Contorno that Putin only released Gershkovich along with 15 other prisoners because he was preparing for Trump to be elected.

Gershkovich had been imprisoned in Russia for over a year after being convicted on allegations of espionage, charges that U.S. authorities steadfastly denounced as baseless. He was released on Thursday morning in the largest prison swap between the West and the Kremlin since the Cold War.

Goldberg told CNN’s Dana Bash that Vance’s opinion on the exchange was “very stupid” and that Gershkovich’s release will likely anger Trump.

BASH: Can you just quickly, as we wait, weigh in on what, JD Vance told our colleague Steve Contorno that this is all about Putin preparing for Trump?

GOLDBERG: Yeah, I think that’s what social scientists would call very stupid. I mean, we’re going to see on Truth Social in a matter of minutes Trump floating some version of that. He’s got to be very upset because he is the one who said, “You get me elected, I will get these guys home.” That it was a bad talking point in the first place.

But I think he — for a few years and a lot of people have been and I think this is speculation, but one of the criminology things literally is that it now looks like Trump could actually lose. So Putin is going to take the chips off the board he can now. And already on Russian television they’re now talking about what does it mean that Trump might actually lose.

Watch the clip above via CNN.