The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee Michael McCaul on Monday criticized President Obama’s exchange of prisoners with Iran as one that will only encourage more U.S. hostage taking.
McCaul said the deal unfairly exchanged U.S. prisoners who never should have been imprisoned with Iranian “criminals.”
“First, you’re talking about exchanging hostages taken by Iran, and Americans, in exchange for criminals and potential terrorists,” he told Newsmax Monday. “Hardly a fair swap in my book.”
The exchange is already drawing complaints similar to those made in the swap for U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl in 2014. That deal exchanged Bergdahl for five members of the Taliban.
Over the weekend, Sen. Marco Rubio said the four U.S. prisoners returned “shouldn’t be involved in swaps.”
“When you reward hostage-taking with this kind of swap, I think it encourages further hostage taking,” McCaul told Newsmax.
