{"id":1178976,"date":"2022-12-14T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-12-14T20:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.washingtoninformer.com\/?p=1178976"},"modified":"2022-12-15T12:39:45","modified_gmt":"2022-12-15T17:39:45","slug":"brittney-griner-is-home-but-an-even-stranger-world-awaits-in-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.washingtoninformer.com\/brittney-griner-is-home-but-an-even-stranger-world-awaits-in-america\/","title":{"rendered":"Brittney Griner is Home, But an Even Stranger World Awaits in America"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The images remain surreal \u2014 WNBA star Brittney Griner walked across a tarmac in Saudi Arabia and met face to face with Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having been incarcerated in Illinois with a 25-year prison sentence, Bout headed back to Moscow. Griner, detained and stuck in a prison colony on a nine-year sentence since her drug conviction earlier this fall, headed to Texas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe fact remains that she\u2019s lost months of her life, experienced needless trauma, and she deserves space, privacy and time with her loved ones to recover and heal from her time being wrongfully detained,\u201d President Joe Biden declared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biden noted that Griner had never pleaded for special treatment. Instead, she wanted freedom for her, and other Americans unjustly imprisoned in Russia\u2019s harsh Soviet-era style conditions and those detained in other nations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe said, \u2018please don\u2019t forget about me and the other American detainees,\u2019\u201d Biden shared from his July correspondence with Griner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said, \u2018please do all you can to bring us home.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For varying reasons, Griner\u2019s return home resonated with so many.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are taking a collective breath because she\u2019s home,\u201d political expert and strategist Amani Wells-Onyioha, told the Black Press<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt took much longer than we anticipated, but it was a great and smart move for Biden. Hopefully, he will continue to help make the Black community happy over the next two years because we still think he has a lot to prove,\u201d Wells-Onyioha insisted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She believes that Biden\u2019s work to free Griner and other efforts to secure a level playing field for African Americans can help Democrats now and in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI understand the frustration that a lot of Black voters have with the Democratic Party because we are often used as like a big pillar of that vote,\u201d Wells-Onyioha stated, echoing words she wrote in a national column<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA lot of Black people feel jaded because they feel like once the election is secured, and we come out in record numbers more every year, that not a lot of tangible results are being applied to the lives of everyday Black folks in this country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like Wells-Onyioha, the Biden administration believes allowing Griner adequate recovery time is crucial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, unless there\u2019s a resolution to other hostages like former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, imprisoned in Russia for nearly four years, Griner will remain a hot topic \u2013 even a source of outrage from some.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe will be offered appropriate care and support from the U.S. government, including medical screenings,\u201d White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre asserted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When he learned of Griner\u2019s release, Whelan was displeased.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am greatly disappointed that more had not been done to secure my release, especially as the four-year anniversary of my arrest is coming up,\u201d Whelan, 52, told CNN from a penal colony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was arrested for a crime that never occurred,\u201d he said, perhaps a not-too-subtle shot at Griner, who admitted to illegally carrying a small amount of cannabis oil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t understand why I\u2019m still sitting here,\u201d Whelan demanded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wells-Onyioha said the specter of Whelan still in custody is another issue facing Griner when and if she does a sit-down interview with the media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI understand Whelan\u2019s concerns,\u201d Wells-Onyioha noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think the reason they pressed to get Brittney home was that her arrest was ridiculous,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe played basketball over there and won for their team. The arrest clearly was a slap in the face to Biden and a response to Biden backing Ukraine in the war.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wells-Onyioha agreed that the prisoner swap sending Bout home wasn\u2019t an equal trade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNot for someone who is all about death for all Americans, for someone who just had a little [cannabis oil] on her,\u201d Wells-Onyioha reasoned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut Russia needed leverage,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jean-Pierre asserted that the Biden administration tried to include Whelan in the swap, but Russian officials said it was Griner or nobody.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis was not a choice for us of which American to bring home,\u201d Jean-Pierre said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat was not the choice. It was a choice between bringing home one American or bringing home none.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The images remain surreal \u2014 WNBA star Brittney Griner walked across a tarmac in Saudi Arabia and met face to face with Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2327,"featured_media":1171121,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"_primary_brand":0,"_newspack_byline_active":false,"_newspack_byline":"","nota_seo_page_title":"","nota_seo_page_description":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"small","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30839,69,45775],"tags":[54134,1978,1584,10629,29275,29735,58964],"brand":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"nota":[],"coauthors":[53509],"class_list":["post-1178976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national","category-sports","category-stacy-m-brown","tag-biden-administration","tag-brittney-griner","tag-joe-biden","tag-russia","tag-sports","tag-stacy-m-brown","tag-viktor-bout","entry"],"apple_news_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\nBrittney Griner is Home, But an Even Stranger World Awaits in America - The Washington Informer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtoninformer.com\/brittney-griner-is-home-but-an-even-stranger-world-awaits-in-america\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Brittney Griner is Home, But an Even Stranger World Awaits in America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The images remain surreal \u2014 WNBA star Brittney Griner walked across a tarmac in Saudi Arabia and met face to face with Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.washingtoninformer.com\/brittney-griner-is-home-but-an-even-stranger-world-awaits-in-america\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Washington Informer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/WashingtonInformer\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/StacyBrownMedia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-12-14T20:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-12-15T17:39:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.washingtoninformer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/image-21.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"555\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"506\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Stacy M. 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