White House Official Details Brittney Griner’s First Moments of Freedom
She waited 10 months to see a friendly face. When she finally did, she wanted to talk.
It was the first thing Roger Carstens, the Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs, noticed when he arrived in Russia to meet WNBA star Brittney Griner and take her home. “When she finally got onto the U.S. plane, I said: ‘Brittney, you must have been through a lot over the last 10 months. Here’s your seat. Please feel free to decompress. We will give you your space,’” he told CNN’s Dana Bash on State of the Union. “She said, ‘Oh, no, I have been in prison for 10 months now listening to Russian. I want to talk. But, first of all, who are these guys?”
He described how Griner went to talk to everyone aboard the plane, inquiring about their lives and getting to know them. They then chatted for the entirety of the 10-hour flight, an experience that encapsulated her humanity and was a striking phenomenon to see for someone in captivity for nearly a year, Carstens said.