american, when he had to the ability to bring them home. and i appreciate that he may have even waited, he may have even delayed and in the hope that paul might have been able to come home. but it was absolutely the right decision to bring miss griner home. and i am so glad that you did. i am super excited that she is free and able to spend time with her family. how does negotiations work. like, literally who is the person doing it on each side, since it is not going, you know. there are normal state to state channels that go through the state department or through the ambassador. like, how does this even get set up? the kind of side channel to negotiate this kind of thing? no, it is a good point, chris. because in any circumstance you easily wind discuss something with sensitive through kind of normal embassy channels, right. their ambassador there. when relations are strained, less there in the case been u.s. and russia, those channels are broken down anyways. so you literally ne
decision to bring ms. griner home. i m so glad he did. i m super excited she s free and able to spend time with her family. joining me now is terry jackson, executive director of the women s national basketball players association. i just have to start, how do you feel? how do you feel today when you woke up and saw this news? we re having trouble with sound, guys. i feel today can you hear me? i can hear you now. i feel today very different from what i felt yesterday, but i gotta tell you, each day i have held out hope, each day i would wake up saying bg is coming home today. when that didn t happen at night, i would say okay, it s going to be tomorrow. yesterday i heard some news that had me anxiously anticipating today. and i woke up and my heart has just been filled with joy, lots
russia, exchanging one prisoner for another. we get griner back and in return we give russia this man. victor bout. the man with the gray mustache that you see in this video carrying that manila envelope. he is walking away from a private plane, and he is walking toward brittney griner, who you can see on the left in that red jacket. this is the prisoner swap that happened on a uae tarmac this morning. the biden administration has made clear that they were involved in, quote, painstaking and intense negotiations to bring griner home. and it became clear in the past two days that despite the white house s attempts to also bring back paul whelan, a former marine imprisoned in russia on suspicion of spying, that russia would only release brittney griner. and only in exchange for notorious russian arms dealer victor bout, who is known as, quote, the motions of death. in 2011, a new york jury convicted him of conspiring to
these people are working 24/7 to get paul whelan out. the russians until the end make the decision. it s kind of a misnomer when we say that the russians are negotiating. the russians are not negotiating. they get a line from vladimir putin about what they will do, and they stick to it. that s what happens in an authoritarian country. whelan s family expressed disappointment he wasn t released but were happy that brittney griner was heading home. rick stengel. great stuff this morning. your new podcast mandela, the lost tapes is available exclusively on audible. check it out. the house shores up funding for the nation s annual defense budget. important move there. and coming up on morning joe. brittney griner is believed to be back on u.s. soil after ten months as a prisoner in russia. we ll hear from one of the administration s top national security officials, john kirby
everything will be fine. in order to get griner on that plane, starting that long tracked back home, the united states had to cut a deal with russia, exchanging one prisoner for another. we get griner back and in return we give russia this man. victor bout. the man with the gray mustache that you see in this video carrying that manila envelope. he is walking away from a private plane, and he is walking toward brittney griner, you can see on the left in that red jacket. this is the prisoner swap that happened on a uae tarmac this morning. the biden administration has made clear that they were involved in, quote, painstaking and intense negotiations to bring griner home. and it became clear in the past two days that despite the white house s attempts to also bring back paul whelan, a former marine in president russia on suspicion of spying, that russia would only release brittney griner. and only in exchange for notorious russian arms dealer victor bout, who is known as, quote, the m