The wife of Brittney Griner blasted President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday for not doing more to get the WNBA star out of Russia.
Griner has been detained since February for allegedly bringing cannabis oil into Russia, where it is illegal.
Appearing on MSNBC’s The ReidOut, Cherelle Griner told host Joy Reid that she has not spoken to her wife since Feb. 17. A call between Griner and her wife, via the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, on Saturday in commemoration of their fourth anniversary was unsuccessful since, according to the Associated Press, “the desk at the embassy where the phone rang was apparently unstaffed on Saturday.”
When asked by Reid what “the Biden administration could do differently,” Griner said, “So, what I believe that the Biden administration can do differently is to actually take the words and the rhetoric — the rhetoric that they have and match them together.
“For example, an American that’s deemed wrongfully detained, to my understanding, from what the State Department is saying, America will negotiate their release. It’s not a maybe. It’s a will. They will negotiate for their release.”
Griner said that while she has spoken to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other State Department officials, “the person that has the power, the Biden administration itself, being President Biden, Vice President Harris, I have not spoken to them. I have asked. I have requested. And, at this point, it almost feels
“It almost feels like, indirectly, they have told us as a family they will not be with us, despite the fact that everybody is saying, when I do speak to people: B.G. is a top priority. We know she’s wrongfully detained. We’re doing everything. But the people that have the highest power, no, they have not spoken to me and my family.”
Watch above, via MSNBC.