According to the NY Times, President Biden was personally negotiating this massive prisoner swap/release about 90 minutes prior to announcing that he was dropping out of the race.
Even in the world of presidential multitasking, July 21 turns out to have been an extraordinary, whipsaw Sunday for President Biden.
At 12:09 p.m., he picked up the phone at his vacation house in Rehoboth Beach, Del., to talk with the prime minister of Slovenia as part of a high-stakes diplomatic gamble to seal a complicated, multinational prisoner swap.
Just 97 minutes later, he posted a world-stunning letter online abandoning his bid for re-election after a bruising pressure campaign by his own Democratic allies, climaxing the biggest crisis of his political career and signaling the end of his presidency after a half-century in public life.
Biden is getting a lot of praise from world leaders and from the families of the released prisoners (duh) for being deeply involved in this complicated 7 country swap. And his staff are making the point loudly about how involved he was:
Mr. Biden’s staff made a point of talking up his diplomatic deftness in brokering the deal, bringing together seven countries in the largest such swap since the Cold War. And they emphasized that he and his administration had helped free more than 70 Americans wrongfully detained abroad during his tenure.
“This was vintage Joe Biden,” said Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser. “If you had not had Joe Biden sitting in the Oval Office, I don’t think this would have happened.”
Harris was also involved in the negotiations, according to another article I read which detailed how/when she participated.
Republicans are grumbling because they don’t want this big news that makes Biden and Harris look really good. They can suck it, this is excellent diplomacy with a great result.