‘A Mere Basketball Player’: Newsmax Host Eric Bolling Trashes Brittney Griner After Prisoner Swap
Newsmax host Eric Bolling slammed WNBA star Brittney Griner one day after Russia released her as part of a prisoner exchange. She was detained in February for possession of less than half a gram of hash oil.
On Thursday, the Biden administration secured her freedom in exchange for convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout. Conservatives have criticized the deal as being lopsided in Russia’s favor. However, on Friday night, Bolling took matters a step further and trashed Griner personally.
Calling Griner “clueless,” Bolling claimed she “can’t free-throw or hide her stash to save her life.” (Her career free throw percentage is 80.4%, which is actually higher than both the WNBA and NBA average.)
The Newsmax host then mocked the WNBA’s ratings by saying the annual Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest has seven times as many viewers as the average WNBA game.
“We used America’s negotiating power and leverage to get a WNBA player out of a Russia jail because she couldn’t live without her marijuana fix while visiting Russia,” Bolling said. Griner had been prescribed medical cannabis in the U.S., but it is illegal in Russia.
Bolling then noted the Russian basketball team Griner plays for during the WNBA’s offseason is owned by a Russian oligarch “with deep ties to Vladimir Putin.”
“That’s right,” he continued. “This social justice warrior, Brittney Griner, is helping to… add riches to the Russian oligarchs. So much for standing with Ukraine, folks. These people never practice what they preach.”
Bolling went on to call Griner “anti-American” over her past comments that were critical of the U.S. She also protested the national anthem.
“But guess who bailed her out of a Russian hard labor camp?” he added. “It was the very country that she insulted by refusing to be present on the court while the national anthem played. America, the country she loathed so much, rescued her.”
He then decried the prisoner swap because Griner is “a mere basketball player.”
“And because of her foolish mistake, America – the nation she believes is unjust – exchanged a dangerous Russian arms dealer known as the Merchant of Death for a mere basketball player,” Bolling said. “And because of that, I don’t ever want to hear Joe Biden utter the word gun control again because he just released a warlord for a basketball player that Americans never even heard of.”
The host went on to speculate that Biden secured Griner’s release from Russian custody and not U.S. citizen Paul Whelan because Whelan is a White man. He is currently serving a 16-year sentence in Russia for allegedly spying.
“Why is a former U.S. Marine – a Marine – Paul Whelan still rotting in a Russian jail?” Bolling stated. “I think you know the answer: because he’s a straight White male, the oppressor, and the very person that Brittney Griner and others believe is the problem in America, But she’s more than an athlete. she’s an LGBTQIA+ icon, and that’s why she was released and not Whelan.”
Bolling then aired a clip of White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre from Thursday where she simply noted Griner is a Black lesbian.
“It’s disgusting,” he concluded.
The Newsmax segment echoed comments made by Tucker Carlson on Fox News the previous night.
“So there is Joe Biden’s press secretary telling you that Brittney Griner is important because she’s a lesbian woman of color,” Carlson said, referring to Jean-Pierre’s comments.
Neither Bolling nor Carlson noted the fact the Biden administration secured the release of U.S. citizen, Marine, and White man Trevor Reed from Russian custody in April – well before Griner’s
Watch above via Newsmax.
