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Tulsi Gabbard Shreds Kamala Harris Over Response To Griner Sentencing

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OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.


Former Democrat Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard Tore Into Vice President Kamala Harris, a former prosecutor, over her response to the imprisonment and sentence of WNBA star Brittney Griner in Russia.

“With today’s sentencing, Russia continues its wrongful detention of Brittney Griner. She should be released immediately. @POTUS and I, and our entire Administration, are working every day to reunite Brittney, as well as Paul Whelan, with loved ones who miss each of them dearly,” the vice president said.

The vice president was immediately called on her hypocrisy by many on Twitter.

“Two things: How many people are still incarcerated for the same offense because of you? And you’re high right now aren’t you?” Chad Prather said.

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“It’s not a wrongful detention. If you break the law, you pay the price. If you go to a different country, learn the laws before you go. How many people did Harris imprison for weed when she was AG of Failifornia?” Kimberly Morin said.

“And if anyone knows anything about wrongful detentions of people, it’s Kamala Harris,” another said.

Speaking to Fox News host Will Cain, Gabbard went in on the vice president.

“Another note of hypocrisy coming from Kamala Harris and this administration, as you mentioned during her illustrious record as attorney general in California…she kept prisoners in prison longer than their sentences to use them as free slave labor yet at the same time these very same people are condemning other countries for doing the exact same thing. It doesn’t make any sense,” she said.

“”My question for her and the Biden administration – where is your outrage for your fellow Americans who are sitting in prison today here in the United States of America because of minor marijuana violations,” she said. “How come you are not fighting as hard for them to be returned home and reunited with their families as you are for Brittney Griner.”

“To me, the message to the American people through [the administration’s] actions is loud and clear, is that if you are rich and powerful or famous, then you will get special treatment from this administration,” the former representative said. “If you are not. We don’t care about you, and we’re going to let you sit there and rot in jail.”

“Unfortunately, like too many politicians, it seems that she puts her finger to the wind and decides the things she’s supposed to be angry about on any given day and if it becomes politically inconvenient or damaging then she’ll switch the other way,” she said.

Kamala Harris cries crocodile tears for Britney Griner’s marijuana possession prison sentence, but as AG she incarcerated thousands of people for marijuana possession, kept them in jail to use as slave labor, and laughed about her own marijuana use in college. Shameful hypocrisy,” she said on Twitter.

Griner’s Russian attorney said that her client was “devastated” with the nine year prison sentence handed to her by a Russian judge.

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She was sentenced on Thursday to the harsh punishment on charges of drug possession and smuggling, for less than a gram of cannabis oil, on Thursday.

She pleaded guilty to bringing vape cartridges that contained cannabis oil into Russia, which is a crime.

“She’s devastated. She is very upset and she’s honestly quite shocked, so she needs to digest what happened today,” her attorney Maria Blagovolina, a partner at Rybalkin Gortsunyan Dyakin and Partners, said to People.

Her attorney said that the punishment for this crime is usually not as severe as Griner’s sentence.

“So nine years, it’s pretty unusual and it contradicts the existing court practice in Russia,” she said. “That’s why we are really disappointed and very much surprised by this decision of the court.”

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Her attorney said that they intend to appeal and that “as a legal team, we need to do [the] maximum to get a shorter term. We need to use every legal opportunity that we have, and [an] appeal is one of those opportunities.”

The likely scenario is that Griner, and Paul Whelan, will be part of a prisoner exchange between Russia and the United States.

She appeared in court on Thursday, prior to the verdict and sentencing, apologized for the shame she had brought to her family, and insisted that she made an honest mistake.

“Russian court has found Brittney Griner guilty on drug smuggling and possession charges. The widely expected verdict comes after a monthlong trial and nearly six months after the basketball star was arrested at a Russian airport with cannabis in her luggage,” NPR reported.

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