5:20
- ABC News
- December 12, 2022
US diplomat tells Paul Whelan: 'We're coming'
Roger Carstens spoke with Paul Whelan hours after landing with Griner.
5:20
Carstens also offered more details about the flight home with a talkative Griner following her release from a Russian penal colony last week. When he tried to show her to her seat on the plane, \"she was having none of it,\" he said.
\"She said, 'Look, I've been listening to Russian for ten months. I want to speak English, I want to chat with people,'\" Carstens said. \"And then as I tried to point her to her seat, she just walked past me and went right to the crew and started introducing herself to the crew members. And also, I watched her and she connected with everyone, looked in their eyes, shook hands, got to know their names, and only when that was all done she went back.\"
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/US/brittney-griner-3-ht-gmh-221211_1670806627756_hpMain_4x3t_384.jpg\")
\"I was really impressed at how she values the other people, to include the people that were trying to bring her home,\" he added.
Carstens said Griner spent about 12 hours of the 18-hour flight talking with others on the plane and slept for the other six.
\"We talked about a lot of things, anything from her time held in the Russian penal colony, going through the trial process, obviously her love for Cherelle, her teammates, everything that she missed, the things that she misses about the United States and America,\" he said. \"But I think I left with the impression that this is an intelligent, impressive woman who's very self-aware, very kind, very humble, and above all, authentic, and you get B.G. when you're talking to B.G.\"
ABC News' Molly Nagle contributed to this report.
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