When President Trump came into office, North Korea was holding a college student named Otto Warmbier. Trump wanted him released and finally, probably because he was dying and North Korea didn’t want that to happen while they held him, North Korea agreed. This is from the Washington Post today:

North Korean officials asked the doctor to write a report about his findings. “It was my impression that if I did not give them a document that I could sign off on, that would cause problems,” Flueckiger said in an interview…
“Would I have lied to get him out of there? Maybe I would have,” he said. “But I didn’t have to answer that question.”

Yun, however, was faced with a more difficult predicament.

The North Korean officials handed him a bill for $2 million, insisting he sign an agreement to pay it before they would allow him to take Warmbier home, according to the two people familiar with the situation.

Yun called then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and told him about the bill. Tillerson called Trump. They instructed their envoy to sign the piece of paper agreeing that the $2 million would be paid, the two people said.

Warmbier was repatriated and died six days later.

This is the reaction.

Wow. "North Korea issued a $2 million bill for the hospital care of comatose American Otto Warmbier…The main U.S. envoy sent to retrieve Warmbier signed an agreement to pay the medical bill on instructions passed down from President Trump." https://t.co/N6brtnW1TT

— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) April 25, 2019

“Wow.” Really? “Wow.” Can you imagine the outrage when the inevitable leak occurred that Trump was offered Warmbier’s release for less money than the US government spends in about 15 seconds and he refused? I don’t see how he could have survived the political fallout. Can you imagine the distraught parents on every cable channel lambasting the administration for letting their son die in North Korea for the sake of an amount of money that wouldn’t rise to the level of a rounding error in the federal budget? But, the same people who fellated Barack Obama while he was giving Iran a nuclear weapon are outraged.

https://twitter.com/aravosis/status/1121447501809291266

BREAKING: Trump paid $2 million for a “hospital bill” for Otto Warmbier to get him released. Might as well have been a failed ransom payment. They murdered him. And we hand them a bag of cash? Give me a break. Trump is ridiculously corrupt. Republicans-your silence is deafening.

— Scott Dworkin (@funder) April 25, 2019

Donald Trump approved a $2 million ransom payment to North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un for the release of American hostage Otto Warmbier. https://t.co/fLrmJRudW7

— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) April 25, 2019

Amid reports that No. Korea presented the U.S. with a $2M bill for Otto Warmbier's care, fmr. Special Rep. Joseph Yun – who brought Warmbier home – tells @JimSciutto "while I was special representative of North Korean policy … we did not pay any ransom."https://t.co/ayHu4n8Rny pic.twitter.com/7T5ARJFXIK

— OutFrontCNN (@OutFrontCNN) April 26, 2019

Wow. @annafifield reports Trump agreed US would pay $2 million to North Korea for “medical care” of Otto Warmbier to win his release as he lay dying. Sounds like a ransom. But not clear if US actually paid; Trump doesn’t honor his debts. https://t.co/ZlB3cv5nhr

— Max Boot (@MaxBoot) April 25, 2019

What was that? About Trump and his debts?

The Trump administration has not paid this bill, a third source familiar with the matter told CNN Thursday, adding that North Korea did not raise the issue as it sought to begin easing the tensions with the US in 2018 nor when Secretary of State Mike Pompeo negotiated the release of three Americans that same year, the source said.

“We made clear that they were never going to get anything” when the negotiating occurred for the release of the 3 Americans, the source added.

Earlier this month, at an event attended by Otto Warmbier’s family, Pompeo dismissed the idea of the US paying ransom for hostages.

“Please remember that any money to a terrorist or terrorist regime gives money so that they can seize more of our people,” he said. “We cannot accept that risk. You wouldn’t ask that of us.”

So the actual story is that Trump told his envoy, and we can thank the Almighty that it wasn’t the mouthbreathing Jim Sciutto, to do what he had to do to get Warmbier home. They signed a bill for $2 million and promptly ignored it. What makes this worse is the same collection of assclowns making a stink about signing a paper to bring an American kid home to his family never said a word about Obama sending billions, some of it in the form of palletized cash, to Iran.

=========
=========
Like what you see? Then visit my story archive.
Follow @streiffredstate
I’m on Facebook. Drop by and join the fun there.
=========
=========