Otto Warmbier is in a coma at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center.
In 2015, he left on a trip to North Korea that would last 18 months. After being sentenced to 15 years hard labor for "crimes against the state" (attempting to take a propaganda poster), the 22-year-old University of Virginia student was detained in one of North Korea's horrifying prisons. The prisons are places the U.N. has acknowledged where grotesque human rights violations which the world has not seen since Stalin's gulags.
What did the Obama administration do to save Otto? They told his family not to hang ribbons on trees.
Last week, five months into the Trump administration, Otto returned home to Ohio. When asked if the Obama administration could have done more for his son, Otto's father, Frank Warmbier, answered, "I think the results speak for themselves."
Frank Warmbier also indicated that the Obama administration told the family to keep a low profile during Otto's detainment.
Towards the beginning of the conference, he exasperatedly answers a question about whether or not he believes the North Korean's story about Otto's detainment: "We are not burdened with what North Korea says any longer."
Frank Warmbier said he and his family had been subjected to waiting and watching news coming out of the communist country for any sign of their son.
"Now we get to feel the love of the community and not have this crazy 'oh, what are they thinking?" he said. "Are we afraid of what North Korea will say? Don't put ribbons on the trees.' All of that's gone."
He also indicated that the Trump administration took a much different approach: "I think the state department was negotiating pretty tough with them," he said "North Korea didn't [release Otto] out of the kindness of their hearts."
Frank Warmbier appeared on the Tucker Carlson show after his son's return.
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