Dana Perino Grills John Kirby on Risk of Releasing Russian ‘Merchant of Death’: ‘Nobody’s Doing Backflips Over Here’

Fox News host Dana Perino pressed White House official John Kirby about how dangerous recently-released arms dealer Viktor Bout is in a Friday interview.

The National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications at the White House defended the trade of the Russian arms dealer for American prisoner Brittney Griner. Kirby claimed the White House is actively working to also get another American, Paul Whelan, released but said Russia would not entertain him being part of the deal.

Perino prodded Kirby on the value of the deal, eventually highlighting the potential dangers of releasing Bout, especially as Russia continues their invasion of Ukraine.

“I imagine a lot of people Googled ‘who is Victor Bout?’ and what they saw would have been horrific,” the Fox News host said. “What he was willing to do in terms providing arms and weapons that slaughtered children, women all over the world. Any civil war he wanted to get into, he did and he was always on the evil side of that.”

Perino noted Bout, who has been dubbed the “merchant of death,” is only 55 and asked what the U.S. could do to prevent him from returning to arms dealing. Kirby did not say whether the U.S. would impose sanctions on Bout.

“We’re going to have to see what he decides to do with his freedom. If he decides to get back into that trade, if he decides he’s going to threaten American national security or the lives of our people, then we’re going to do what we have to do to hold him to account and to defend ourselves,” Kirby said.

He added that no one at the White House is excited over the release of Bout but said he would have been released in a few years anyway.

“Look, nobody’s doing backlips over here, Dana, that he’s a free man again,” he said. “He would have been in 2029. it’s not like he was serving a life sentence.”

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