Jim Pietrangelo: Brittney Griner, like LeBron James, is a coward and a bigot

I doubt very much that Brittney Griner had any influence over who should have been released first. And I would expect a current or former U.S. service member unlawfully detained by a foreign adversary to insist (if asked) that a U.S. civilian (no matter who they are) be released first. Was the swap fair and equitable? On face value it appears lopsided, but factor in that Victor Bout served over 14 years of a 25 year prison sentence. And the judge acknowledged she had no choice but to sentence Bout to what she considered an overly harsh 25 years due mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines.

I'm still waiting for the Press Conference where Griner publicly expresses her gratitude and appreciation for the Country that facilitated her release in exchange for a worldwide notorious illegal arms dealer who actively facilitated our Country's demise.

Yup, still waiting...

I think you better do some research before you put Paul Whelan on a golden throne. Are you aware that he is, like Trump, a known liar? He claims a BA in Criminal Justice which he never earned! He claimed to be a police officer whike in fact he was a part timer and one department he claims to have worked for has no record of him. And worst of all, he was Courts Martialed on several counts resulting in a “bad conduct discharge”. The exact charges against him were “attempted larceny, three charges of dereliction of duty, making an official false statement, wrongfully using another’s Social Security number, and ten counts of knowingly writing bad checks.” All this information is available on Wikipedia. It should also be noted that while traveling in Russia he was carrying $80,000 in cash and a external data drive. Sounds awfully suspicious to me. And, it appears that the CIA knew nothing of Whelan…as one official said, “we would never recruit someone with Whelsn’s military record!”

Grindr was released because Putin allowed it. Remember, she was very popular with the people of Russia as a basketball player. She was literally to Russia what Janes or Curry is to the USA. And Putin made it clear that it would be Griner or no one….Whelan was off the table. Also, let’s not forget that there are several other people being held in Russia. Their names never get mentioned.

BTW, YOUR bigotry is showing…..

Where to begin? Let’s start with the obvious false analogy of one prisoner being held for bombing his captors in a war, hence a prisoner of war, and the other prisoner being held for mistakingly carrying a minute amount of CBD for personal use. Pretty ridiculous comparison, right? Let’s move on to the false claim that Brittney Griner is a “bigot”: Definition of bigot: “A person who is unreasonably attached to a belief, opinion, or faction, especially one who is prejudiced against or antagonistic toward a person or people on the basis of their membership of a particular group.” In other words, a person who is intolerant toward those holding different opinions. So Joe is by definition literally a bigot, simply projecting his own warped opinions onto others. Take for example just a few of the headlines from letters he has previously posted in the CDS. (1) “President Biden resembled Adolf Hitler…” (2) “I don’t have to watch the 1/6 hearings to recognize a witch hunt” (3) “More lies from the left” (4) “Trump lost due to voter suppression by Democrats” (5) “Unfairly elected, Biden will become a tyrant” (6) There was massive voter intimidation against Trump”. I could go on, but you get the picture. What kind of a person demeans a two-time gold winning Olympic champion who represented her country to the fullest and brought both pride and gold home to America, and thinks she should rot in a Russian prison for nine years to satisfy his personal hatred of those who differ from him? A bigot, that’s what kind of a person.