White House: We're Not Incentivizing Iran to Take Hostages with Deal, Iran Already Sees Value in Taking Hostages

On Friday's broadcast of MSNBC's "Morning Joe," White House National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby responded to concerns that the unfreezing of assets as part of a reported prisoner deal with Iran will incentivize Iran to take more Americans hostage by stating that "it's not like the regime in Iran needed another excuse to see value in detaining Americans," but acknowledged that there has been a "deeply concerning" rise in state-sponsored hostage-taking by countries like Iran.