MSNBC Guest, Obama Alum Celebrates Iran Hostage Deal With Ill-Advised Declaration: ‘No Price That Is Too High’ for Americans
Veteran Time editor and former Obama administration Undersecretary of State Richard Stengel eschewed the U.S.’s stated policy of refusing to negotiate with terrorists in his celebration of the Biden administration’s hostage deal with Iran on MSNBC Monday, declaring that there was no price too high to pay for Americans taken prisoner.
“It’s a joyous occasion,” remarked Stengel about the completion of the deal, which released $6 billion to the world’s largest state sponsor of terror and exchanged 5 American citizens held by Iran for 5 Iranian nationals being detained in the United States.
He continued:
And this administration, the Biden administration, like the Obama administration, like traditional administrations, places a huge premium on getting Americans who are unfairly and illegally held back home. And so what is the price for getting an American back home? There is no price for it. The Biden administration is willing to go to the ends of the earth to get these men home.
And so know there’s criticism and anticipating it. But my understanding from reading these reports is that this was South Korean money that was being paid to the Iranians for Iranian oil that was held in escrow because of the U.S. boycott of Iranian oil. So this wasn’t American money at all. But I would say there is no price that’s too high to pay for the release of Americans. Again, it’s something that traditionally American administrations do to get Americans back home. It’s a great occasion.
One of the American hostages, Siamak Namazi, thanked the Biden administration for securing his release, but also warned against the normalization of such deals.
“Over the past 44 years, the Iranian regime has mastered the nasty game of caging innocent Americans and other foreign nationals and commercializing their freedom,” wrote Namazi. “If we keep this path to profit free of risk and toll, this regime will keep treading on it, again and again and again.”
Reasonable minds can agree to disagree over the merits of the Biden-Iran hostage deal. But even if it’s true that there’s no limit to the rewards that the Biden-Obama brain trust is willing to shower America’s enemies with for kidnapping its citizens, it’d be nice if they didn’t announce as much on television.
Watch above via MSNBC.
This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.
