Biden takes a political hit but brings Americans home

CNN — President Joe Biden’s deal with Iran that unlocks $6 billion in Tehran’s frozen funds to bring five imprisoned Americans home is creating the kind of terrible optics and an opening for his domestic foes that a politically weakened president can ill afford. Former President Donald Trump said on his Truth Social network that the move had created a “terrible precedent” while obliterating its nuance by slamming a “6 billion dollar hostage deal” with Iran. Texas Rep. Mike McCaul, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, for instance, expressed concerns as the deal took shape that it “creates a direct incentive for America’s adversaries to conduct future hostage-taking.” This may be the case but is difficult to prove – although nations like Iran have long considered such tactics fair game in decades-long standoffs with the US – most famously in the US embassy siege in 1979-80. Every deal, done by Biden, Trump, Barack Obama and all the way back to Ronald Reagan to free US citizens abroad foments a political firestorm but is also an act of grace and generosity from a president willing to take a political hit while also no doubt hoping for a domestic boost from bringing Americans home.