Glenn Greenwald Attacked on Live Radio Show, Fist Fight Ensues

Charlie NashNov 7th, 2019, 2:45 pm
 

Intercept editor Glenn Greenwald was attacked on Thursday during a live appearance on a Brazilian radio show by a pro-Jair Bolsonaro commentator, prompting a fist fight between the two men.

According to BuzzFeed News, the man who attacked Greenwald during a discussion was Augusto Nunes, a “far-right Brazilian journalist” who took a swing after the debate became heated.

“The two journalists had a heated exchange over Nunes’ previous comments about Greenwald’s children with his husband, Brazilian politician David Miranda,” BuzzFeed News reported.

Referencing previous comments from Nunes, where he encouraged Juvenile Court to investigate Greenwald and his husband over their adopted children, Greenwald said, “I want to know if you still believe that a judge should investigate our family, with the possibility of taking our children away from home and returning with them to the shelter, without a mother, without a father, without a family…”

“He still can’t identify ironies. He can’t identify a humorous attack,” Nunes responded, according to BuzzFeed’s translation. “I invite him to prove when I asked some court to do it. I just said that his companion spends time in Brasilia and he spends all his time dealing with stolen material, so who will take care of the children?”

The fight then took place after Greenwald called Nunes a “coward,” prompting Nunes to swing at the American journalist. Greenwald blocked the swing, and the two stood up, and Nunes delivered an open-palm hit to Greenwald’s face. The pair were then separated.

Following the incident, Greenwald took a swipe at Nunes in a video, declaring, “Violence in political debate is the fascist mindset and very dangerous for democracy.”

Greenwald had announced his appearance on the radio show earlier on Thursday, posting on Twitter, “Today in Brazil, I’m appearing on one of the country’s largest right-wing, pro-Bolsonaro radio/YouTube outlets. It’s my third appearance this year.”

“By the truly moronic standards of U.S. liberal discourse, this means that I’m a Bolsonaro supporter who agrees with all his policies,” he continued, a likely reference to his appearances on Fox News.

UPDATE: Greenwald released a full English-language video statement in response to the incident.

In the video, Greenwald explains that he went on the show “because I believe that it’s crucial in any democracy, especially one as polarized as Brazil, to have a political dialogue with your adversaries, people who have different ideologies and political opinions.”

“There are hundreds of millions of people in Brazil, in the world, including his own bosses and colleagues, who have children where both parents work and yet he didn’t have the courage to call for judges to investigate their children, only ours, and it was obviously partially homophobic,” Greenwald declared. “The idea that a judge should remove the children of two gay men. He then reacted the way the video shows, with physical violence.”

“I think what’s most important is that the Bolsonaro movement, including the president’s son and his mentor and many members of congress in his party are applauding this violence, because it’s a fascist movement,” he concluded. “They want a civil war, they want violence in our political discourse, and that’s what makes them so dangerous.”

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