i m christine romans. new day starts right now . two weeks from today. the midterm elections. brace yourself. i m john berman with brianna keilar. the race for control of the senate looks to be tight. new cnn polling shows democrat john fetterman with a slight edge over republican mehmet oz in pennsylvania. and in wisconsin ron johnson, democratic challenger men della barnes basically even. inflation the top issue. followed by abortion rights. early voting in that state begins today. in pennsylvania 44% of likely voters sight the economy. and more on debates in a moment. tonight in new york, a highly anticipated debate between incumbent democratic governor kathy hochul and republican challenge lee zeldin. zeldin made crime the focus of his campaign. and last night desantis and crist going toe-to-toe on abortion. and theian going poulter wars and may have his eye on the white house refusing to commit all four years if he wins the election. according to a top official,
charges of smuggling cannabis. it was nearly the maximum sentence for bringing less than one gram of cannabis oil into the country. britney griner pleaded guilty last month to cartridges in her possession, which arrived i airport in february. but she told the court that bringing them into russia was an honest mistake after she packed in a hurry. before the sentencing today, unemotional britney griner apologized, saying she never intended to break any laws in a final plea for leniency. i never meant to hurt anybody. i never meant to put in jeopardy the russian population. i never meant to break any laws here. i made an honest mistake. and i hope that, in your ruling, that it doesn t lose [inaudible] my life here. i know everybody keeps talking about political pawn and politics. but i hope that that is far from this courtroom. but the judge didn t grant her any leniency. the lawyers called the verdict absolutely unreasonable and plan to appeal, saying the court ignore
moments ago the appeal hearing got under way for wnba star brittney griner in a russian court. this comes three months after griner was convicted of smuggling cannabis into the country, or cannabis oil. her lawyers say griner is hoping the court will reduce her nine-year sentence but not expecting miracles. cnn s matthew chance is monitoring this for us. what do we expect to happen today, matt? reporter: well, john, not expecting fireworks. in fact, i had a conversation with the lawyers in moscow a few days ago, and they said, look, know, anything could happen, of course. they re pushing that the sentence of nine years to be overturned and the verdict overturned as well, but what they re hoping for at the very least reduction in the amount of time that brittney griner has been sentenced to serve in a russian prison s she s been sentenced to nine years. whats it will go down to eight
charges of smuggling cannabis. it was nearly the maximum sentence for bringing less than one gram of cannabis oil into the country. britney griner pleaded guilty last month to cartridges in her possession, which arrived i airport in february. but she told the court that bringing them into russia was an honest mistake after she packed in a hurry. before the sentencing today, unemotional britney griner apologized, saying she never intended to break any laws in a final plea for leniency. i never meant to hurt anybody. i never meant to put in jeopardy the russian population. i never meant to break any laws here. i made an honest mistake. and i hope that, in your ruling, that it doesn t lose [inaudible] my life here.