Brittney Griner's wife says U.S. embassy botched long-awaited phone call

Driving the news: "I was distraught. I was hurt. I was done, fed up," Cherelle Griner told the Associated Press.

• "I'm pretty sure I texted BG’s agent and was like: 'I don’t want to talk to anybody. It's going to take me a minute to get my emotions together, and just tell everybody I’m unavailable right now.' Because it just knocked me out. I wasn’t well, I’m still not well," she said, per AP.
• A State Department spokesperson said, "We deeply regret that Brittney Griner was unable to speak with her wife because of a logistical error."
• "We have no higher priority than the safety and security of U.S. citizens overseas," the State Department spokesperson said.

The big picture: Cherelle Griner told AP that she is "very pissed" about the canceled phone call and said it had been planned for two weeks.

• "I find it unacceptable and I have zero trust in our government right now. If I can't trust you to catch a Saturday call outside of business hours, how can I trust you to actually be negotiating on my wife’s behalf to come home? Because that's a much bigger ask than to catch a Saturday call," she said.
• Cherelle Griner has called on President Biden to bring her wife home.

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