It's.. odd. Odd enough with the way it was handled that it opens the door for a reasonable amount of skepticism as to what exactly was going on there.
The idea of course would be that the administration is lying and that there was in fact a choice available for either Griner or Whelan and someone screwed up or something and told that story to NBC instead of the administration's preferred version which is that it was a choice between Griner or no one.
It certainly could have been an error on the reporter's part or a misunderstanding between the reporter and the senior U.S. official.. but I would say that considering the passage in question would easily be the most ripe for criticism portion of the story for the administration if it were in fact the true version of things.. I don't think it's crazy, considering the way it was handled by NBC, to wonder if there's maybe more to it than just human error.
If I flip it around in my head and it was a Republican President and Fox News did something like this.. it'd be the same for me as this where I'd really just like to know more as to what exactly was going on there with the change and why there was no immediate acknowledgment when it pertained to such a crucial portion of the story.
*I haven't followed this today so maybe they've already addressed it