The Intercept’s Glenn Greenwald was assaulted by a far-right journalist whom he was interviewing at the time of the attack.
Greenwald, who has been critical of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, was interviewing VEJA columnist Augusto Nunes during a program on the radio station Jovem Pan. Things took an ugly turn after Greenwald confronted Nunes about comments he previously made about Greenwald’s marriage.
Nunes previously wondered “who takes care of the children [he and husband, Brazilian politican David Miranda] adopted? That’s what the Juvenile Court should investigate,” according to BuzzFeed News. He also brought up “stolen messages” from law enforcement officials that expressed concern about corruption. Those messages were leaked and published in The Intercept.
Greenwald responded to those remarks during the interview saying, “We have a lot of political differences, I have no problem being criticized for my work, I criticize him too, but what he did was the ugliest and dirtiest thing I’ve ever seen in my career as a journalist.”
He then directly confronted Nunes, “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…”
Nunes countered, “He still can’t identify ironies, he can’t identify a humorous attack. 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?”
Greenwald proceeded to call him a coward repeatedly.
In response, Nunes swung his fist at Greenwald while they were sitting, but both men proceeded to stand and get into each other’s faces. Others in the room jumped in and ripped the two men.
As the men were separated, Greenwald charged back toward Nunes and threw a punch.
BREAKING NEWS: @theintercept journalist @ggreenwald was punched by VEJA columnist Augusto Nunes after calling him “coward”. The scuffle happened during a program on radio station Jovem Pan #BrazilianReport #AugustoNunes #GlennGreenwald pic.twitter.com/0GI0nMUHbP
— The Brazilian Report (@BrazilianReport) November 7, 2019
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
