Ex-Trump Official On CNN Defends Biden Admin From Charge They ‘Left Behind’ Paul Whelan

CNN political commentator and former Trump campaign official David Urban defended President Joe Biden’s administration from the charge they “left behind” Paul Whelan in their deal to free Brittney Griner.

On Sunday morning’s edition of CNN’s State of the Union, anchor Dana Bash and her panel discussed the news of Griner’s release in a prisoner exchange for convicted international arms dealer Viktor Bout, also known as the “merchant of death.”

Urban went out of his way to praise the Biden administration, and to push back on the idea that Griner’s release came at the expense of Whelan, as many critics have intimated:

DANA BASH: David Urban I know that you were trying to help another person who is still held captive in or in prison in Russia. Paul Whelan, get freed in the final years of the Trump administration. What’s your sense knowing a bit about how all this works, of not just Brittney Griner, but the potential for Paul Whelan?

DAVID URBAN: First of all, I’ll just say congratulations to Roger Carstens, who was assigned here in the Biden administration for the good work they did. None of this is very easy. The American people think it’s you know, it’s an either or. They had a choice. They don’t have a choice. You have to negotiate with the Russians. So think about Putin sitting across the table. And Vladimir Putin doesn’t give you a choice. He said you can have this or you can have nothing. So it wasn’t you could have Paul Whelan. Listen, we’d love to have Paul Whelen home. I know his familywould. I know Roger Carstens would, I know the Biden administration would like to have Paul Whelan on, and they’re going to get him home. But at this point in time, they just couldn’t get it done. And it’s very difficult to do. It’s not. Is that simply. No, we don’t want Vicki. We don’t want Brittney right now. We want Paul. That’s not, that wasn’t even on the table.

JANE HARMAN: Yeah. I applaud what you just said. And it’s also good that Carstens is a holdover from the last administration. This is not a political partisan job.

Watch above via CNN’s State of the Union.