Analysis: Why did Putin agree to US-Russia prisoner swap?

Analyst Sue O'Connell unpacks the political ramifications of the historic prisoner swap that freed Americans Paul Whelan and Evan Gershkovich held in Russia, as well as the current state of the Trump campaign now that he's likely running against Kamala Harris.

[whiskeyflyer]

Cause he knows Trump's coming back

[RosesGibbs]

Yes people need to stay back here Don't go to Russia it's big risk. Honestly I don't know if it was every ever safe The last person that Trump back back here came back blind and almost dead and died three days after

[debracutler]

Sue can’t help herself, she has to rant and talk bad about Trump. It’s totally obvious

[robertmcneil]

Because we gave them all spies back and a spetsnaz colonel lol

[nickpope]

Mr Putin is so awesome!!!! Well done, beautiful Russia ❤❤❤

[skullrepublic]

Thank you Putin for the swap, any good deed will be remembered… may Hashem show us the way.

[peterkogl]

President Putin is king of America 😅😅😅

[Justmekpc]

Good job president Biden VP Harris and all the rest of our civil servants and Allie’s who helped make this happen

[chelvintharuka]

Love russia❤️❤️❤️❤️ love putin the great❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️😍😍😍😍

[firefalcoln]

It’s crazy how no one can just celebrate a win for the United States and our allies. We got back 16 in exchange for 8. I call that a win. I don’t think the potential future leader on one of the many nations involved in the deal was a big factor in the minds of the negotiators either as many Trump fans would like people to believe. And if they think Trump would have brought back our prisoners with a better deal, why didn’t it happen while Trump was President?

I’m very skeptical of Trump’s administration being able to pull of a deal with just our allies. Let alone a deal with Russia and our allies at once. Plus to Trump, Putin is more of a figure that he envies than views as an adversary to the United States. You can tell when Trump talks about him or other authoritarians. It’s despicable. Plus Trump is super easy to manipulate or bribe because he so obviously only cares about himself rather than the country as a whole. We should be relieved that Trump wasn’t president during these negotiations. We’d probably have gotten about as much as we got from withdrawing out of the Iran deal. Which is to say nothing, while Iran becomes closer to having nuclear weapons.

[judithbstar]

So which 16 were handed over for which 8?

[garypascucci]

😂😂😂😂😂
Biden negotiated a deal? Thats not even close to believable.
He can't negotiate stairs, or his way off a stage...
😂😂😂😂😂

[kevinneider]

Well you can tell she support sleepy joe.

[Eunicekrohn]

This will be watching by our lord and make the changes to come with faith and peace as he is our leadership 🙏 🙌 ❤️ ✨️ 💯🤲

[jaredh]

Then Joe boarded the plane from Russia.

[TheBlackSands]

The americans is a great russian spy series 👍

[ghstbeard]

we know. Buy-den had NOTHING 2do with this.🤣🤣🤣

[compimagaol]

Because Putin knows Trump will win and would never have done the swap

[markveillette]

Because he knows we are weak. Very weak.

[davidlannan]

Because he was afraid Trump would win😅