Democrat President Joe Biden has dealt a blow to the hopes of “woke” WNBA star Brittney Griner, who is currently serving nine years in a Russian prison.
White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre broke the news ahead of the G20 Summit where Biden could meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“I have no intention of meeting with him,” Biden said earlier of Putin.
“But, for example, if he came to me at the G20 and said, ‘I want to talk about the release of Griner,’ I would meet with him.”
On Wednesday, Biden was asked by a reporter: “You said you would be open to meeting with Vladimir Putin to discuss Brittney Griner.
“Have you seen any movement on that front?”
“Not with Putin,” Biden said.
It gets worse for Griner, however.
Jean-Pierre said Biden will not meet with Putin, even to discuss Griner’s case.
“Biden believes the Russians need to take the serious offer that we put forward on the table, or make a serious counter-offer to negotiate, but in good faith,” Jean-Pierre said.
“He has no intention of meeting with Vladimir Putin,” she asserted, further sinking Griner’s hopes.
Former Russian prisoner and American citizen Trevor Reed weighed n on the case.
“Regardless of how you feel about Brittney Griner’s case, that sentence is clearly political,” Reed said.
“There’s no denying that.
“Once you are convicted in a Russian court, you do have a chance to go to appeals and appeal that decision to another kangaroo court in Moscow.
“So after that trial, you know, depending on Brittney’s decision on whether she wants to appeal or not, she may stay in Moscow at the detention facility that she is already at until her appeals are completed.
“Or if she chooses not to go to appeals, they may transfer her to a forced labor camp.
“Considering the fact that the Russian government is considering exchanging her, they may also decide to leave her in Moscow to make it easier for her to be returned to the United States.”
Reed added a labor camp would be hard on Griner and that those who are sent to the labor camps are “facing serious threats to their health”
Cherelle Griner, the WNBA star’s wife, said earlier that the basketball player has “suffered to the max” in the Russian gulag.
“It was just so delightful just to hear her voice,” Cherelle Griner said.
“You could hear that she was not okay.
“If you think about just a person’s suffering and when they have suffered to a max, she was at the max that day.
“I think I cried for about two, three days straight. It was the most disturbing phone call I’d ever experienced. It’s just the most still, I think, the moment I’ve just ever shared with my wife. I didn’t have words.
“I do believe a crime should warrant a punishment.
“But it must be balanced.
“B.G. has truly suffered beyond her crime already.”
“He’s doing what he can,” she said of President Joe Biden.
“But there’s another party in this situation, and we also are dealing with the need for Russia to have mercy on B.G. as well,” Cherelle said.
“Once that hearing is held, and the order is finalized, B.G.’s now in the position where she could be moved to a labor camp.
“My brain can’t even fathom it.
“I don’t know if she has anything left in her tank to continue to wake up every day and be in a place where she has no one.
“She’s, like, saying things to me like, ‘My life just don’t even matter no more.’
“You know, ‘I feel like my life just doesn’t matter. Like, I’m just being tossed around, like, for people’s enjoyment and gain.’”
“Those are all valid emotions to feel and I don’t have answers for, except the fact that your life matters to me, and I wanna get you back home,” she said.
“I’m gonna continue to pray every day that, you know, the people that are the decision-makers in this situation will have mercy and will sit down, and they will too see that your life matters, and do whatever they can to agree — on terms.”
“When Trevor Reed was released, you woulda thought that it was Brittney Griner, because that’s how happy I was.
“And I had not met the Reed family yet, but I just know immediately, I went on Instagram and I made a post and I was so happy for his family.
“Because I know what I’m feeling.
“And I’m just, like, wow.
“Like, it ended for them that day. What I’m feeling ended for them that day, and I was so happy,” she said.
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