‘Her Freedom Is a Gift to the World’
Brittney Griner's release celebrated -- everywhere but on the political right
Many political leaders and those in the media hailed the release of American basketball star Brittney Griner from a Russian prison, while others warned potential adversaries against seeing the swap which allowed for the release as a “blank check to take Americans.”
However, on the political right, Griner's liberation has become a source of bitterness and grievance.
Griner, 32, was set free from a 9-year prison sentence in Russia Thursday in a one-for-one prisoner swap, in which the US government returned convicted arms merchant, Viktor Bout, back to Russia.
A player for the Phoenix Mercury of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), Griner had been sentenced in Russia after she was found in February of carrying vaporizer cartridges containing less than a gram of hash oil. In Arizona, she had been prescribed medicinal cannabis, which is illegal in Russia.
“How wonderful is it that on the same day that Brittney Griner is going to be free — thank you, President Biden, thank you to the secretary of state and other national security people, and to our colleague [Rep] Greg Stanton who represents Arizona — Phoenix, Arizona, in the Congress, he has brought her here,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said. “We have met her when she was here playing basketball. And now today she is free, free to go home to her wife, on the same day that we passed the Respect for Marriage Act. Her freedom is a gift to the world, to all of us. Our gift to her is this legislation that her marriage is protected wherever she may live.”
A lesbian, Griner's wife was present alongside Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of State Antony Blinken when Biden announced that Griner would go free.
Late-night funnyman Stephen Colbert, too, enthused over the Griner release on his Thursday night show, calling it “a big win for Joe Biden.”
“Here’s something you rarely hear: there’s good news out of Russia, because this morning, wrongfully detained WNBA star Brittney Griner was released from Russian detention! Boom! Putin tried to take Griner to the rack and is rejected!” Colbert gushed. “Now Brittney is coming home, but she has to dribble the entire time, or it is traveling. This is a big win, a big win for freedom. A big win for Joe Biden, whose administration brokered the release.”
In an on-camera appearance on CNN, however, it fell to Pentagon spokesman John Kirby to offer a warning after the prisoner exchange about other countries who might try to detain Americans for their own advantage.
“We’re mindful of that risk, of course. That’s why we’ve taken steps in this administration to put sanctions and visa restrictions in place for those state and non-state actors who might engage in hostage taking,” Kirby said. “That’s why the State Department put a new designation on countries, a designation for detention risk. We want Americans to go on the State website when they’re going to travel overseas and make sure they are fully informed when they go overseas.
“And look, I think any nation that comes away from this thinking this is a blank check to take Americans, they ought to think twice about that. We’re going to hold them accountable,” Kirby added. “It’s also a strong signal about how the president feels the weight of the responsibility he feels about protecting Americans abroad, particularly those that have been wrongfully detained.”
Not everyone in the United States was equally thrilled about the Griner news, particularly those on the right who are trying to paint the basketball star as “anti-American” due to her activism.
“I don’t know, maybe if those Americans that are imprisoned in jail over there in Russia, maybe if they were as anti-American as Brittney Griner has been, maybe they'd had been released a hell of a lot quicker. Who knows. Unbelievable,” said prominent right-wing media personality Dana Loesch.
Far-right Fox News host Tucker Carlson also went full-tilt against Griner, focusing — as so much of the right is doing — on stating a preference that American Paul Whelan should have been released instead.
“So at this point, we can assume the obvious: the Biden administration chose Griner over Paul Whelan, the basketball player over the Marine facing 16 years. There was only room for one on the lifeboat, and the Marine got left behind. Well, why did they make that choice? Well, you should know that Whelan is a Trump voter and he made the mistake of saying so on social media, he’s paying the price for that now. Brittney Griner is not,” Carlson ranted, baselessly. “She had very different politics. Brittney Griner despises the United States, she’s been very vocal about that. This country is so repellent and immoral that two years ago she said, ‘I honestly feel we should not play the national anthem during our basketball season.’ She hates the country so much she doesn’t want to hear its anthem.
“That’s the kind of position that gets you rewarded by Joe Biden. ‘Hate America? Perfect! We’ll free the guy who sold weapons to drug cartels to get you out early.’ So there is that,” Carlson continued. “And then there is the matter of identity, which is central to equity. Brittney Griner is not white and she’s a lesbian. Now those facts might see irrelevant to you, we hope they do seem irrelevant because they are, but they are not irrelevant to the White House press secretary. In view of the White House press secretary, those are essential qualifications for a prisoner swap.”
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