{"id":1646248,"date":"2022-09-18T17:49:39","date_gmt":"2022-09-18T21:49:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1646248"},"modified":"2022-09-18T17:50:59","modified_gmt":"2022-09-18T21:50:59","slug":"biden-meets-families-of-russian-held-detainees-griner-whelan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/biden-meets-families-of-russian-held-detainees-griner-whelan\/","title":{"rendered":"Biden Meets Families of Russian-Held Detainees Griner, Whelan"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fbiden-meets-families-of-russian-held-detainees-griner-whelan%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1646248&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>WASHINGTON\u2014President <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-joe-biden\">Joe Biden<\/a> met on Friday with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-families\">families<\/a> of two Americans being held by Russia, and personally reassured them he is working to gain freedom for the detainees.<\/p>\n<p>Biden sat down in the Oval Office with Cherelle Griner, partner of women\u2019s basketball player <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-brittney-griner\">Brittney Griner<\/a>, and Elizabeth Whelan, sister of former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Whelan-Griner-1200x675-1.jpg\"><\/a> (Left) Paul Whelan, a former U.S. marine, in Moscow on June 15, 2020. (Right) Women\u2019s National Basketball Association (WNBA) basketball player Brittney Griner at the Khimki Court, outside Moscow on Aug. 4, 2022. (Kirill Kudryavtsev\/AFP via Getty Images) <\/p>\n<p>Biden conducted the separate meetings to assure the families that the detainees \u201care at front of mind,\u201d said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re going to continue to do everything that we can, working tirelessly every day, to make sure that we get them , home,\u201d she told reporters.<\/p>\n<p>Biden \u201cappreciated the opportunity to learn more about Brittney and Paul from those who love them most, and acknowledged that every minute they are being held is a minute too long,\u201d Jean-Pierre said in a statement after the meetings.<\/p>\n<p>National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan joined Biden at the meetings, the White House said.<\/p>\n<p>Griner, a two-time Olympic gold medalist and Women\u2019s National Basketball Association (WNBA) star, was sentenced to nine years in a Russian prison on drug charges on Aug. 4, a verdict that Biden called \u201cunacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/img.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/uploads\/2022\/09\/18\/Brittney-Griner-1200x802.jpg\"><\/a> Basketball player Brittney Griner, who was detained at Moscow\u2019s Sheremetyevo airport and later charged with illegal possession of cannabis, sits inside a defendants\u2019 cage after the court\u2019s verdict in Khimki outside Moscow on Aug. 4, 2022. (Evgenia Novozhenina\/Reuters) <\/p>\n<p>The United States in late July said it has put forward a \u201csubstantial offer\u201d to secure the release of the two Americans.<\/p>\n<p>Last month, Russia\u2019s foreign ministry said it was engaged<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WASHINGTON\u2014President Joe Biden met on Friday with families of two Americans being held by Russia, and personally reassured them he is working to gain freedom for the detainees. Biden sat down in the Oval Office with Cherelle Griner, partner of women\u2019s basketball player Brittney Griner, and Elizabeth Whelan, sister of former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan. [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1646248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1646248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/66"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1646248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1646248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1646248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1646248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1646248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}