nbc nightly news. thank you for the privilege of your time. lindsey reiser picks up with more news right now. good morning. i m lindsey reiser at msnbc headquarters. following a lot of breaking news today. first, brittney griner is finally home. she touched down on u.s. soil early this morning in her home state of texas. her wife cherelle is with her once again after they were separated for nearly 300 days while griner was in russian custody. griner is getting medical attention as we see new reaction from her aboard a plane as she is freed. happy. do you know where you re headed to? no. i don t know where. you re flying back home. in moments, her road ahead as the white house is responding to criticism for releasing the so-called merchant of death. viktor bout without getting more from russia, like the release of
first time we re seeing brittney griner in that penal colony doing work. that short clip that we saw. the white house, obviously, celebrating this, but also facing some criticism, releasing a so-called merchant of death and not securing the release of american paul whelan. and i want to play some reaction from paul whelan speaking to cnn from a russian prison yesterday. i don t understand why i m still sitting here. i m greatly disappointed that more has not been done to secure my release. and whelan s sister elizabeth appeared on msnbc minutes after her phone call with president biden yesterday afternoon. our colleague asked her what they discussed and this is part of what she said. our family is delighted to see brittney coming home. if there was a plan available, i think they would have put it into play. but i believe everyone is highly committed and is doubling down on that commitment to get paul home. i don t know what it s going to take. all i know is that we have to
U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner was freed from jail in Russia on Thursday in exchange for the release of Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer jailed in the United States, according to U.S. and Russian officials. Here are some key facts about Bout: - He became one of the world's most wanted men during his career as an international weapons dealer, and was dubbed "the Merchant of Death" in a 2007 biography.