While the Trump administration quietly secured the unilateral release of 74-year-old American Stephen Hubbard after four years in Russian custody—no prisoner swap, following a direct presidential request to Putin—and obtained Russian agreement in principle to resume U.S.-Russia-Ukraine talks after November 10 on post-conflict security arrangements (accepted by both sides per U.S. officials, following Witkoff’s Oslo and St. Petersburg meetings), Democrats and their media allies have produced nothing but reflexive smears that treating Putin as a negotiating counterpart somehow proves incompetence. That is the only response they know how to give. Their own administrations left Americans languishing in foreign prisons for years with no resolution and allowed a grinding war to continue without any credible off-ramp or leverage that produced results. They never delivered a free American without conditions or forced a path toward talks; they simply watched, then attacked anyone who tried. Concrete outcomes for an American citizen and progress toward ending the war are metrics they are unequipped and unwilling to credit, because their record consists of failure followed by endless commentary. Trump’s approach has already returned one wrongfully detained American and advanced negotiations. Theirs remains the same empty performance. -- Joseph Fosco October 21, 2026