Secretive and high-stakes negotiations led to a historic prisoner swap with Russia, freeing 16 hostages, including American journalist Evan Gershkovich. Just an hour before announcing he wouldn't seek reelection, Biden made a crucial phone call that pushed the deal over the finish line. Amid months of tense talks and geopolitical maneuvering, Biden’s surprise move came as a last-minute effort while he was holed up with COVID at his Delaware beach house. The swap, marking the largest of its kind since the Cold War, saw the release of imprisoned Americans and Westerners in exchange for Russian citizens, showcasing Biden’s dramatic impact on international diplomacy right before his unexpected exit from the presidential race.

On Thursday, as the swap was unfolding in Ankara, Turkey, Biden met with the families of three American citizens and one American resident at the White House. He called them from the Oval Office, and then they joined him for a press conference reports the New ...