BELLEVUE, WA – “Joe Biden’s world-class hypocrisy is on full display, and it has taken a dangerous turn, in his trade of a notorious Russian arms dealer for Brittany Griner,” the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said today.

Biden’s swap of Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout—known as the “Merchant of Death”—for Griner this week has brought expressions of outrage and astonishment. The jailed basketball gold medalist is one of two Americans who have been held by the Russians. The other is Paul Whelan, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who was imprisoned four years ago on espionage charges, and remains in Russian custody.

“It is simply mind-boggling that Joe Biden could release the world’s most dangerous arms trafficker while at the same time continuing his crusade to disarm American citizens,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “The hypocrisy is staggering.”

Following the midterm elections, which will result in a Republican takeover of the U.S. House in January, Biden re-energized his call for a ban on semiautomatic firearms. He hopes to rush through legislation before Republicans take control, which will doom his anti-gun agenda, Gottlieb said.

“Joe Biden has spent his 50-year political career trying to disarm American citizens by eroding the Second Amendment,” Gottlieb stated. “Yet, to appease his far-left base, he just traded a true international super-villain for a basketball player who was prosecuted for having a controlled substance in her luggage. While it’s nice a U.S. citizen is free, the consequences of this trade could be horrendous.

“From this moment forward,” he continued, “the president has surrendered any semblance of credibility on the subject of guns, crime and gun control, so he can pack his sanctimony away and just drop the charade. Joe Biden is willing to sacrifice global public safety for political points. “Biden is fine with arming the enemies of freedom while disarming the people who fight for firearms freedom,” Gottlieb said. “He should be impeached for violating our constitutional Second Amendment rights.”