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
cannabis. it was nearly the maximum sentence for bringing less than one gram of cannabis oil into the country. when she arrived in moscow s airport in february. she told the court that bringing them into russia was an honest mistake after she packed in a hurry. before the sentencing today, on emotional brittney 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 willing, that it doesn t end 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 ignored the defense is defenses evidence. she was very upset. very upset, very stressed. and she can har
ready to discuss a prisoner swap. former u.s. ambassador to russia michael mcfaul and the executive director of the wnba players association will join us to break down the latest. also ahead, democrats reach an agreement on their economic package helping president biden make good on a major campaign promise. we ll have the latest from the white house. that is because, and willie, my gosh, our economy later job numbers have just come out. you talk about a resilient economy, man. it keeps rolling. this is an incredible jobs number. the july jobs report is in and much stronger than expected. the u.s. economydded 528,000 jobs last month. with the unemployment rate ticking down to 3.5%. that jobs number notably higher than what we ve seen in recent months. economists are expecting gains to slow this month and in months to come. let s go right to nbc news senior business analyst stephanie ruhle. by my count, this is about twice as many jobs as most analysts expected to be added
happiness and i m so happy for her family. i can t imagine what that would be like. she s there smiling. i m sure for the first time in awhile. let me show you, renee, what don staley, legendary coach who coached brittney on team usa, had to say about the, i think, the balancing act that a lot of people tried to to maneuver in terms of doing what was helpful. there was a time in which they told us not to say anything, just to be silent. and there came a time when we excuse me french, we said, eff it, and keep her name, every day, just for, you know, them not forgetting anybody forgetting about her, and, you know, now we re at a place where, you know, our whole entire women s basketball community, we stood strong. we stood strong to make sure
brittney release for some time. what do you think that advocacy did for her release? i ll say this, like, you know, there was a time in which they told us not to say anything just to be silent. there came a time where we we had to say ef it and keep brittney griner s name every day. now in this we re at a place where, you know, our whole entire women s basketball community, we stood strong. we stood strong to make sure that our sister got a chance to come home. and i really would like to thank the president biden and vice president harris and secretary blinken and all the organizations that have helped bring this this happy day, oh