Brittney Griner Sentenced to 9 Years in Russian Jail

BUCK: We just got word that — in the last couple hours, I think it was — Brittney Griner, the WNBA basketball — female basketball — star has received nine years in a Russian prison. And here she is saying… She spoke in court. We have her talking about this that she never meant to break any laws. This was today in Moscow.

BUCK: So there you have — obviously it’s a tough — a tough moment in time there for Brittney Griner, facing nine years in a Russian prison. Russian prisons are notoriously hellish places, and she is there. I hope the court isn’t — Russian court isn’t — taking into account politics. It’s really what mostly Russian courts are concerned with in a case like this. “What does the regime think? How does this look?”

This is international relations be played out through and of course spite through international relations played out through the arrest of an individual. Look, she broke the law, but I think, from what I have seen, it wasn’t… You know, she didn’t get caught smuggling a few kilos of marijuana into Russia or heroin or something really serious. It was a vape pen with some cannabis oil in it. There are trucks on the streets of New York City that are selling — I think they’re selling edible — aren’t there?

(interruption) Yeah, there are weed trucks driving around New York City I see all the time. There are some states where marijuana sales are entirely legal now, and there obviously have been in Europe, for a long time, countries where it is entirely decriminalized and even commercialized. So the fact that she’s getting nine years is unjust. We all know this. I don’t think she’s gonna serve nine years.

I think she’s likely to get out sooner than this, hopefully very soon, along with Paul Whelan, who is a former U.S. Marine who’s also wrongfully detained in Russia. And this is one of these moments, we gotta remember, folks: Whatever the individual in this case — whatever their politics may be, whoever they voted for — these are our people. These are Americans and we want them back. Now, people say, “But what if somebody did something horrible in a foreign country?”

If someone murders someone in a foreign country, yeah, you are subject… The State Department always reminds people of, you are subject to the laws of that country when you are in the country. I do think that there are some Americans who get a little lax about this stuff and they forget oh. If I’m in a place where the punishment is X for doing Y, saying Uncle Sam’s got my back isn’t gonna necessarily do very much for you.

And in the case of a country like Russia or China, it can work against you. And that’s what, at least right now, we’re seen in the Griner case. I think we’ve obviously seen that with Paul Whelan, the former Marine detained there on some ridiculous trumped-up charges. And this is what they do. Now they want to get Viktor Bout out, the arms trafficker who is best known, as I’ve told you before, as the inspiration for the Nicolas Cage character in Lord of War.

Essentially a Hollywoodized version of Viktor Bout’s life is what you see in the Nicolas Cage movie. And the Russians want him back ’cause he did a lot of things that the Russian government liked. And he worked with a lot of former Soviet military interests, got a lot of connections there. So this seems to be the trade that is likely to happen. But in a broader sense, I do think what we are seeing — and this might take some time to sink in.

We are increasingly operating now in a multipolar world where U.S. hegemony isn’t absolute and in fact is being challenged in very direct ways. The Russians are holding Brittney Griner for nine years. I know they say, “Oh, this is under their laws.” Please. Okay. In Russia, you know the right guy in a track suit with a gold chain on — you know, if your friends is Cousin Yuri and he’s connected to the Kremlin — you’re good to go. You’re not serving a minute in prison even if you whack somebody, okay?

So I have heard some conservatives start to say, “Well, if you do the crime, you do the time.” Let’s all keep perspective on this. A lot of things in Russia they let you go for. There’s politics coming into play here. You know, nine years for a vape pen with weed is extreme, all right? We all know it’s extreme. If the Russians had given her six months, a year, you might say, “Ow.”

I am sympathetic to this though in another sense, too, because how many of you have had a moment where… I know. I know. But how many of you who spend time at the range or who either carry edge weapons for defense or just people that train with edge weapons, you’re at the airport and your bag’s going through the machine and you go, “I didn’t leave a magazine that was from my range bag, right?”

That kind of thing can happen. If you look at the TSA statistics, people end up with, like, you know, “Oh, yeah. I had a battle-ax in my baggage. I forgot about it.” You know, people have crazy stuff and try and bring emotional support peacocks on the plane. That actually happen happened. That was the beginning of the end I think of the emotional support animal charade that some people were doing.

“Oh, here’s my emotional support pigmy hippopotamus.” Well, first of all, you ever seen the pigmy hippo at the D.C. zoo? One of my favorite animals. Amazing. Amazing. See, this is what happen. Start to think. Well, could I? Apparently they’re an endangered or threatened species; so having one as a pet would probably not fly. But they are very cute. But back to the airport situation.

I think it’s easy for people to lose sight of how much this is now in the realm of the great game, international statesmanship and intrigue between Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden. And I do firmly believe that if Donald Trump were in charge, Putin would have a different feeling about this. I think as much as Putin thought of Trump as… I know, the media was saying, “Oh, Putin and Trump love each other. They have a bromance.”

That is all crap. I do think that Putin, as a bad guy, had a respect for Donald Trump that he simply does not have for Joe Biden. I think he thinks Joe Biden is a nincompoop and should be, you know, breaking up bread crumbs to feed to the pigeons somewhere. I think if they really don’t… I think Putin has no respect at all for Joe Biden. And that stuff matters. In Russia, a phone call from Vladimir Putin releases Brittney Griner same day. It’s all it takes.

In this country there’s some process, although there’s obviously the pardon power from the president. Even with the pardon power there’s supposed to be… Trump did pardon one or two people with a tweet. But usually there is some process, and it goes through White House counsel. In Russia, it’s just, “Let her out.” Putin could do that with a phone call. We all know that. So it is different.

And I think it’s a reminder for so many Democrats who are fed a diet of delusion by the media around all things Russia and Trump that we are less safe when we have a commander-in-chief who does not seem with it, is it not formidable, does not have vision, and is not respected. We just are. We are less safe as a people all over the world, every country you’re going to.

There is far less concern now from opposition regimes like Russia and China, far less concern about getting a call from a Joe Biden State Department official than there would have been from the Trump White House. I think we all know that. I think even the libs know that. Brittney Griner, in her letter, seemed to express that and that disappointment in the Biden administration at this point. So, we do need to remember that Americans are our people, and we want them back.

We want them not to be used as political pawns in this way abroad and serving, you know, some really Draconian sentence. So hopefully Biden brings Paul Whelan back. Hopefully Biden brings Brittney Griner back. But China and Russia are feeling a whole lot more free to throw their weight around at our expense as a nation and as a perception of American prestige and power than they have in years, and I think we all know why.