The Biden Administration’s exchange of Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout for WNBA player Brittney Griner is an unequivocal embarrassment for the United States and a moral victory for Russia. No Soviet “active measures” could make the United States look as foolish and decadent as Biden has just done.
It is one thing to give up a real-life James Bond villain nicknamed “The Merchant of Death” in return for an accused spy like Paul Whelan. It is quite another to give up said Merchant of Death for an entitled anti-American pothead who got herself into a jam through her own stupidity and carelessness.
But, one hears the liberal say, should we not celebrate the homecoming of an American? After all, isn’t she one of ours? That depends. What, exactly, are we celebrating? Can one recall a more obvious example of racially motivated patronage than this? Can an honest person deny that Griner would still be freezing in Siberia if she were a straight white male? Does her VIP treatment not rub against the very idea of equality on which this nation was founded?
Paul Whelan has been imprisoned for four years since he was plausibly entrapped by Russian intelligence. Who set up Brittney Griner, and why was she selected instead of Whelan, or Marc Fogel, a white diplomat who was convicted of virtually the same offense as Griner? Everyone knows the reason, but Democrats would have us ignore the elephant in the room. We should not be so forbearing.
Say what you will about the Biden team, but they are very aggressive about getting what they really want. There is simply no will in the White House to rescue a white man in distress, for the same reason there is no will to protect the nation’s borders. Biden could have brought Whelan home. But Biden’s people don’t waste time doing things their voters don’t care about. For the Left, Whelan was always an afterthought to the martyred Griner. His fate was sealed the moment Biden began tying his case to hers. Russia was never going to trade two prisoners for one, and unfortunately for Whelan, he is simply not special enough to make the cut.
Weirdly, the Biden Administration is reluctant to mark Griner’s return as a win for “equity.” They have instead put out a sloppy, disingenuous cover story claiming that Russia was unwilling to let Whelan go. This is not only unconvincing, but it also sells Biden short by his own lights. Since when does Biden take orders from Putin? Moreover, Biden has pledged from day one to give favorable treatment to minorities. What greater proof of this promise could there be than what he has just done for the esteemed Brittney Griner?
Under Biden, black supremacy has gone global. His absurd rescue mission sends a message that if you are the right kind of American, if you check the right identity boxes, Washington will stop at nothing to save you from the consequences of your decisions. But if you are not so lucky, well, you can go kick rocks.
This is a hard lesson that many are learning from everyday experience in our increasingly lawless, dysfunctional, rigidly unequal society. The racialist poison of black supremacist politics makes a mockery of justice and is turning this country into a pressure cooker. There is nothing to celebrate in that.