The public outcry surrounding Brittney Greener’s plight is growing — and it’s causing problems for President Biden, who has failed to release the basketball star from custody in Russia.
Greener wrote to Biden in recent days that she was “terrified that I might be here forever.”
Her wife, Cherelle, appears to have lost patience with the administration’s previous advice to take a low-key approach to closing Britney.
On Tuesday, Cheryl Greener told “CBS Mornings” that it was “very disheartening” that she had not heard from Biden directly.
Cherelle Griner added: “It kills me every time I have to write [Brittney] and she asks, “Have you met them yet?” And I have to say no.
The Reverend Al Sharpton, generally a staunch Biden defender, sought the administration’s help in securing a clergy visit to see Greener in Moscow.
In an interview for this column, Sharpton said he spoke with Cheryl Greener both on the phone and on the radio show last week.
The basketball star’s wife, he said, feels that “from [Brittney’s] letters she seemed very stressed. She was concerned because she is in a prison where very few people speak English, so it is very difficult for her to even communicate her needs.
Asked about the Biden administration’s response, Sharpton said, “I certainly think they could have done more. I think there wasn’t much backing vocals. I understand the sensitivity of these negotiations, but I think that at some point, after four months, you have to raise public outrage on this issue.
Griner, a center for the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury, has been detained in Russia since February, when authorities say cannabis oil was found in her luggage. She faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted in a trial that began last week and is due to resume Thursday.
Her plight poses several interrelated problems for the White House.
First, given the war in Ukraine, it seems highly implausible that the Russian authorities would be willing to release Griner for the sake of goodwill.
Second, the idea that Moscow could use Greener as leverage to free Viktor Bout, an infamous Russian arms dealer nicknamed “The Merchant of Death,” is unpalatable, both morally and politically. Booth was sentenced to 25 years in prison on terrorism charges in a 2012 trial in New York.
Third, there are particular sensitivities raised by the failure to secure the release of Griner, a black gay woman.
On Monday, Griner’s head coach with the Phoenix Mercury, Vanessa Nygaard, told reporters, “If it was LeBron [James]he would be home, wouldn’t he?’
Nygaard added: “It’s a statement about the value of women. It is a statement about the worth of the black man. It is a statement about the worth of a gay man. All these things. We know it, and that’s what hurts a little more.
Above all, the Biden administration’s continued failure to secure Greener’s release adds to the sense of helplessness that has eroded the president’s position on a range of other issues, from gas prices to inflation to the Supreme Court’s recent rejection of Roe v. Wade.
That doesn’t mean the Democrats will lose the midterms because Biden can’t unseat Greener. But her continued detention is another stone weighing on his political fortunes.
“Most people make their policy decisions for reasons other than a very unusual situation like the Brittney Greener crisis,” said Democratic strategist Joel Payne. “But given her status, it connects in a way that is particularly impactful to this president.”
Payne added: “It’s part of a potpourri of other problems that are mutually reinforcing. This is a complicated issue for the White House.
The White House has disputed the idea that the president is unconcerned about Greener’s plight.
White House press secretary Karin Jean-Pierre told reporters Tuesday that she was in Biden’s presence when he read Griner’s letter and that the president takes the star’s predicament “very personally.”
Jean-Pierre added that Griner’s situation is a “priority” for Biden and that the administration will “use every tool” to try to secure her release.
The press secretary also noted that senior members of the administration, including Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, have been in direct contact with Cheryl Greener.
Separately, State Department spokesman Ned Price said at his media briefing on Tuesday that “we are engaging regularly, if not daily, with Brittney Greener, her loved ones and her networks as well.”
Price said that while his department is keeping relatives of people considered wrongfully detained informed of the “broad strokes” of the administration’s efforts to secure their release, “it’s not something we’re in a position to talk about publicly.”
Of course, negotiations around such issues are often delicate and tense.
The White House points to the April release of former Marine Trevor Reed from Russian custody as evidence that its subtle approach can work.
Griner’s plight is also intertwined with that of Paul Whelan, another American detained in Russia. Whelan was arrested in 2018 on espionage charges and was convicted and sentenced to 16 years in prison in 2020.
The administration says it is working hard to free the two people.
But that’s not the way the public sees it — including even administration sympathizers like Sharpton.
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“There doesn’t seem to have been an aggressive move to free her,” he told The Hill.
While that impression lingers, it’s another in a long list of problems for Biden.
The Memo is a reported column by Niall Stanage. Laura Kelly contributed.
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