Hillary Clinton launches blistering attack on Trump for siding with ‘murderous dictator’ after prisoner swap deal

Hillary Clinton has launched a scathing attack against Donald Trump after the former President heaped praises on Russian President Vladimir Putin for the historic prisoner swap deal between Russia and West.

Hillary Clinton, the former First Lady and Democratic nominee for president in 2016, expressed her outrage over Donald Trump’s praise of Vladimir Putin.(REUTERS FILE PHOTO)

Speaking at a rally in Atlanta, Trump recently credited Putin for striking “another great deal” with the historic prisoner exchange involving the United States, Russia, and other nations, which resulted in the return of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former US Marine Paul Whelan, among others.

“By the way, I would like to congratulate Vladimir Putin for having made yet another great deal,” Trump asserted, asking the crowd, “Did you see the deal we made?”

According to Trump, some of the “greatest killers anywhere in the world” were released under the deal. “Some of the most evil killers they got. And we got our people back.”

“We have 59 hostages; I never paid anything. … Boy, we make some horrible, horrible deals. It’s nice to say we got ’em back, but does that set a bad precedent?”

The Republican presidential nominee earlier boasted that the Kremlin leader wouldn’t release Gershkovich “for anyone else” but him.

Clinton blasts Trump for giving credit to Putin

Clinton, the former First Lady and Democratic nominee for president in 2016, expressed her outrage over Trump’s praise of Putin.

In a blistering post on X, she wrote: “Even by Trump standards, siding with a murderous dictator who took Americans hostage is traitorous and pathetic.”

“You do not, in fact, have to hand it to Putin,” she added.

The deal has been welcomed as a victory for President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, who has taken Biden’s place atop the Democratic ticket for November’s election.

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Germany and other allies assisted the US government in negotiating the agreement.

Russia and Belarus released sixteen prisoners as part of an extraordinary prisoner exchange. In exchange, ten inmates from many Western nations were turned over to Moscow.

Two well-known US citizens, Gershkovich and Whelan, returned home as part of a swap involving multiple nations.

Vadim Krasikov, a Russian who had been sentenced to life imprisonment in Germany for the murder of a Georgian citizen of Chechen, was also freed.