the white house this morning. over the last nine months you all have been so privy to one of the darkest moments of my life, and so today i m just standing here overwhelmed with emotions, but the most important emotion that i have right now is just sincere gratitude. while griner s release is no doubt cause for celebration, griner s wife and president biden both acknowledged the other wrongfully detained americans still being held in russia. the administration insists they did everything they could to try and also secure the release of former american marine paul whelan who s currently serving a 16-year prison sentence on trumped-up espionage charges, charges he vehemently denies. cnn spoke exclusively on the phone to whelan from the russian prison about griner s release. i m greatly disappointed that more has not been done to secure my release. i don t understand why i m still sitting here. our coverage starts today with cnn s alex marquardt on
more on how griner was released this morning and how biden managed to negotiate his second russian prisoner swap this year. reporter: the dramatic moment of the high stakes prisoner swap. brittney griner in the red coat walking toward the american plane. coming towards them, state department official roger carsnetz, accompanying viktor bout, who is hugged by a russian official. this new video from russian state media showing griner leaving russian detention and boarding a plane in the snow. her passport returned, griner smiled, knowing she s heading home. are you ready for flight? yes. congratulations again. thank you. reporter: back in the u.s. griner s wife cherelle was invited to the white house. today i m just standing here overwhelmed with emotions. but the most important emotion that i have right now is just sincere gratitude for president biden and his entire administration. reporter: the release was the culmination of many months of negotiations with russia.
this work is not easy. negotiations are always difficult. there are never any guarantees. but it s my job as president of the united states to make the hard calls and protect american citizens everywhere in the world. reporter: the wnba star, who was caught with cannabis oil entering russia, spent ten months in russian detention. but now she s spared from a brutal nine-year sentence in a russian penal colony. u.s. officials said that the trade for notorious russian weapons smuggler viktor bout was finalized in the past 48 hours. griner was moved from her prison to moscow before being flown to abu dhabi, where the exchange took place on the tarmac of a small private air field. i m glad to be able to say that brittney s in good spirits. she s relieved to finally be heading home. reporter: the u.s. wanted to trade bout for both griner and american paul whelan. but russia refused. in an exclusive interview from his penal colony whelan told cnn he s surprised he wasn t included. i
more has not been done to secure my release. i m happy that brittney is going home today and that trevor went home when he did, but i don t understand why i m still sitting here. my bags are packed. i m ready to go home. reporter: whelan told cnn that the russians see him at a higher level than griner. he s been charged with espionage and sentenced to 16 years. this was not a choice of which american to bring home. the choice was one or none. i wholeheartedly wish that we could have brought paul home today on the same plane as brittney. reporter: the big question now is how to get paul whelan home, who the russians will want in exchange and whether the u.s. will be willing to do it. jake, you could hear in that exclusive interview that paul whelan did with our colleague jennifer hancer that he is deeply frustrated. he says today russia got the better deal, that griner was exchanged for what he called a world-class felon. he said he believes russia is dangling him, paul whelan, ov
biden s head and that they will want something big in exchange. as for brittney griner, she s on her way back to the united states. she is due to land in san antonio, texas. we don t quite know when. that of course is where trevor reid was also taken when he was released by the russians back in april, and that is where griner like reid will be able to get any medical attention that she needs. alex marquardt, thank you so much. brittney griner s basketball team the phoenix mercury has been tweeting for weeks counting the days that griner has been in russian custody calling for her release. today the team tweeted no more days. she s coming home. joining us now is terry jackson. she s the executive director of the women s national basketball players association. thanks so much for joining us. how d you feel this morning when you heard the news? thank you, jake. i i go to bed every night saying brittney s coming home tomorrow. so i was anxiously anticipating this morning. i thought