Biden Expertly Trolls Nancy Mace Over Russia Prisoner Swap

South Carolina Representative Nancy Mace demanded to know what President Joe Biden was up to on Thursday, only to be brutally reminded that he does, in fact, still have a job.

Shortly after Biden announced that he would no longer be running for president, MAGA Republicans immediately started pushing a conspiracy theory that he was dead or incapacitated, demanding he show “proof of life.” Despite the fact that Biden appeared on television within days of the announcement, it seems like Republicans just can’t get used to not seeing his face every day.

“Biden is MIA. Why is no one talking about it?” Mace wrote on X Thursday morning. A sentiment of heartwarming concern, to be sure.

Of course, on Thursday, the White House announced Biden had helped to organize the release of 16 hostages from Russia, including three American citizens and one American green card holder: Paul Whelan, Evan Gershkovich, Alsu Kurmasheva, and Vladimir Kara-Murza.

The Biden-Harris White House made sure to keep Mace updated on the president’s schedule.

“He’s been busy,” the White House wrote on X, quote-tweeting Mace. The account included a screenshot of a post from Biden, who met with the families of the released American hostages in the Oval Office.

“Today, I stood beside the families of Paul, Evan, Alsu, and Vladimir in the Oval Office as they spoke to their loved ones for the first time since they regained freedom. These families never lost hope. And today, they’ll each be reunited with the missing piece of their soul,” Biden tweeted.

In the end, the Case of the Missing Biden had a simple solution: He was in his office. Likely place for him to be.

Back in January 2021, then–House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senator Chuck Schumer tried to convince Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the Twenty-Fifth Amendment to remove Donald Trump from presidential office.

The Democratic leaders made a call to Pence’s office shortly after the January 6 Capitol riot, according to revelations in Pelosi’s upcoming memoir, The Art of Power: My Story as America’s First Woman Speaker of the House. An advance copy of the book, due to be released next week, was obtained by The Guardian. But Pence’s office left the two on hold for 20 minutes and never responded to them.

“Following January 6, the Democratic leadership discussed asking the vice president to invoke the 25th Amendment to the Constitution, which allows for the vice president and a majority of cabinet members to certify that a president is unable to discharge the duties of the office,” Pelosi wrote.

She and the then–Senate Minority Leader Schumer called Pence to talk about invoking the provision, but Pence didn’t reply.

“The vice president’s office kept us on hold for 20 minutes,” Pelosi wrote. She added that she was “thankfully” at home at the time and “could also empty the dishwasher and put in a load of laundry” while waiting for Pence to respond. But he didn’t.

“Ultimately, Vice President Pence never got on the phone with us or returned our call,” wrote Pelosi.

While it’s well known that Pelosi, Schumer, and several other members of Congress made public calls to have Trump removed from office during that time, this phone call wasn’t public knowledge until now. Pence went on to publicly reject calls to invoke the constitutional provision in a letter to Pelosi later that month, despite defying Trump and his supporters on January 6 and certifying his election loss.

The missed phone call is another reminder that Pence, while doing the bare minimum of certifying the 2020 presidential election, failed to step up and take action against the biggest danger to democracy when he had the chance.

New polling data out Thursday shows Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump neck and neck in several key swing states.

Surveys conducted by conservative market researcher Public Opinion Strategies for the Competitiveness Coalition showed Harris leading Trump in Pennsylvania (48 percent to 45 percent) and Wisconsin (48–46). The two are also tied 45–45 in the battleground state of Michigan.

Meanwhile, Trump squeezed ahead of Harris in Nevada and Arizona by one percentage point and three percentage points, respectively. The survey was conducted between July 23 and 29. Pollsters spoke to 400 people in each battleground state, resulting in a margin of error of plus or minus 2.19 percent.

Despite 57 percent of those polled saying they disapprove of the job Joe Biden has done as president, a number still said Harris would have their vote. Across the five states, Trump and Harris tied perfectly, each with 46 percent of the vote.

Voters chose inflation, border security, and threats to American democracy out of a list of options as their key issues, with abortion following close behind.

A Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll of registered voters published Tuesday showed Harris with a larger lead in Michigan, beating Trump by 11 percentage points. In Arizona, Wisconsin, and Nevada, she held a two percentage point advantage.

Political polling is not always the best indicator of public opinion, as polls tend to eliminate nuance or only capture opinions from the most politically active people. But the new data is still significant considering how far Biden was trailing behind Trump in the final days of his campaign.

Donald Trump doesn’t seem the least bit happy about the release of three American citizens who were wrongfully imprisoned in Russia. Why? Probably because he had nothing to do with it.

The White House announced Thursday that “three American citizens and one American green-card holder who were unjustly imprisoned in Russia are finally coming home: Paul Whelan, Evan Gershkovich, Alsu Kurmasheva, and Vladimir Kara-Murza.”

In total, the exchange freed 16 people imprisoned in Russia, including five Germans and seven Russian citizens who had been political prisoners in their own country. The U.S. worked alongside Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Norway, and Turkey to secure the deal, according to the statement.

The Wall Street Journal, where Gershkovich works, has dubbed it “the largest and most complex East-West prisoner swap since the Cold War.” But rather than celebrate, Trump took to Truth Social Thursday to whine that he was not on the inside of brokering the gargantuan deal.

“So when are they going to release the details of the prisoner swap with Russia?” Trump wrote—the first of his many questions.

“How many people do we get versus them? Are we also paying them cash? Are they giving us cash (Please withdraw that question, because I’m sure the answer is NO)? Are we releasing murderers, killers, or thugs?”

“Just curious because we never make good deals, at anything, but especially hostage swaps. Our ‘negotiators’ are always an embarrassment to us! I got back many hostages, and gave the opposing Country NOTHING—and never any cash. To do so is bad precedent for the future. That’s the way it should be, or this situation will get worse and worse. They are extorting the United States of America. They’re calling the trade ‘complex’—That’s so nobody can figure out how bad it is,” Trump wrote.

Trump’s anti-diplomacy pearl-clutching is not only inane, it is also hypocritical. His own administration facilitated several prisoner swaps during his time in office.

In 2019, the Trump administration oversaw the release of three senior Taliban leaders imprisoned in Afghanistan, in exchange for one American, Kevin King, and Timothy Weeks, an Australian. One month later, the U.S. freed Masoud Soleimani, an Iranian scientist convicted of export violations, in exchange for the return of Xiyue Wang, a Princeton graduate student held in Iran.

In October 2020, one of Trump’s deputy assistants agreed to free 250 Houthi rebels being held in Oman, in exchange for two Americans, Sandra Loli and Mikael Gidada, who were held hostage by Iranian-backed militants in Yemen.

Two years later, Trump lied, bragging that, while in office, he’d secured the release of 58 hostages without giving anything in return.

It’s entirely likely that Trump is suffering from some kind of diplomatic FOMO. At CNN’s infamous presidential debate in June, Trump promised that he would free Gershkovich before he even took office.

“As soon as I win the election, I will have that reporter out,” he said, not referring to Gershkovich by name, instead calling him a “good guy.”

Trump alleged that Russian President Vladimir Putin had demanded “billions of dollars” for Gershkovich’s release but failed to produce any evidence to support that claim. Rather, Putin has repeatedly indicated that he wanted one person in particular: Vadim Krasikov, a former intelligence officer who had shot a rebel leader in Berlin in 2019.

Despite the fact that Trump never got the chance to follow through on his flimsy promise, that hasn’t stopped his sycophants from tossing him some credit anyway.

After President Joe Biden on Thursday announced a deal to free American hostages in Russia, J.D. Vance somehow tried to give Donald Trump the credit.

Vance’s initial reaction to the news began normally, in an interview with CNN’s Steve Contorno.

“Look, I think it’s great news, at least what little we know. We certainly want these Americans to come back home. It was ridiculous that they were in prison to begin with,” the Republican vice presidential nominee said, before going in a completely different direction.

“But we have to ask ourselves, why are they coming home? And I think it’s because bad guys all over the world recognize Donald Trump’s about to be back in office, so they’re cleaning house,” Vance said. “That’s a good thing. And I think it’s a testament to Donald Trump’s strength.”

The Ohio senator isn’t making any sense here. He appears to be echoing Trump’s comments from May that only he could free Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, claiming that “Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, will do that for me, but not for anyone else, and WE WILL BE PAYING NOTHING!”

But this was easily disproved Thursday after the release of the hostages, who also included Marine veteran Paul Whelan and Russian American radio journalist Alsu Kurmasheva. National security adviser Jake Sullivan was asked about Vance’s claim at a press conference Thursday, and he dismissed the idea.

“I don’t follow,” Sullivan replied.