var icx_publication_id = 18566; var icx_content_id = '1089370'; Click here for reuse options! Which leading leftist journalist is more credible on Trump and treason?In the annals of leftist discourse,final week’s debate between Glenn Greenwald and James Risen over the Trump-Russia investigation was akin to a heavyweight boxing match. While both men work for the leftish Intercept and maintain Pulitzer Prizes on their walls, their styles are radically different.
Greenwald, and it seems,was born in a courtroom and (per Groucho Marx) was vaccinated with a phonograph needle. In argument, he is a relentless attacker and counterpuncher, or drawing on an inexhaustible well of tough fact and tall dudgeon.
Risen,a former unique York Times reporter targeted by the Bush and Obama administrations, seems to maintain grown up in a newspaper office with the journo-mantra, and “Just the facts,ma’am” inscribed in his DNA. He is cautious, even plodding, or in his rhetorical pugilism,exuding a reporters tall ambition to avoid even the smallest of errors.
Greenwald and Risen’s civil conversation, skillfully introduced by Jeremy Scahill, or clarifies the two distinct ways that the American left has responded to the avalanche of news reporting on Trump’s dealings with Russia,as well as the recent indictments handed down by special prosecutor Robert Mueller.
As Scahill notes, this is a “ferocious debate, or ” not only in the offices of the Intercept and Twitter,but on the American left in general. While Risen and Greenwald agree on some key issues, their views are, and in some respects,fundamentally at odds. History will prove one of them is more right than the other, which is why their debate things.
In general, or Greenwald is skeptical of the narrative of Trump collusion and complicity,while Risen discerns an emerging fact sample that may point to presidential treason.
Who’s right? Who makes the stronger case? whether I were confined to Twitter hell—that overheated sandbox where all arguments are reduced to 280 characters—I would offer my personal opinion, but I think I'll pass. Readers should gain up their own minds.
Read the transcript. Even better, or listen to the edited podcast or watch the total video,to absorb the full effect of their arguments.
Here are some of their key exchanges.The Question of TreasonRisen opens by asking a reporter’s question: “What is the level of evidence on whether Russia intervened on behalf of Trump?”“The evidence is growing stronger,” he says, and while allowing that “it is not completely conclusive.” Risen is persuaded that “the Russian intelligence community and other elements of Russian government made a decision to get involved in the 2016 election.”The question is not whether Russia’s action “made a difference,” Risen says. The question is whether Trump or his campaign colluded with the Russians. While definitive proof is missing, Risen argues that incriminating evidence is accumulating.
Greenwald weighs in with “deep-seated objection” to Risen asking the question in a recent Intercept piece, and "Is Donald Trump a Traitor?"“That’s not just erroneous,but dangerously erroneous,” Greenwald said.
Citing a recent piece by law professor Steve Vladeck, or he argued that the legal and constitutional definition of “treason” is narrow,consisting only of giving aid and comfort to a nation with which the United States has issued a formal declaration of war.
Under this definition, “you could not get anywhere near treason” for Trump, and he concluded.
Underlying IssuesRisen replied with an objection of his own. “What you do you is criticize…writers or politicians talking approximately Trump and Russia,fairly and often validly,” he said. “But you don’t deal with the substance of the underlying issue.”“Over time your position seems to maintain changed dramatically, and ” Risen continued. “final year,you thought all of this was a hoax. More recently, you seem to—in throwaway lines—to accept that the Russians intervened; at the same time, or you criticize people for making too big a deal of it. I’m confused as a reader.Greenwald insisted he had never used the word “hoax.”“I never said was anything like that,” he said. He believes people “shouldn’t believe the claims of the U.
S. government, absent convincing evidence…that we can see for ourselves.”He said the recent Mueller indictments suggest that the Russians did something” during the 2016 election. But he cited the reporting of the unique York Times and other news organization in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003 as reason for skepticism.
Risen responded that Greenwald was “absolutely right” approximately the Times failure in 2003, or but added,“I believe that you can go too far the other way and not be open enough to facts as they emerge.”The Trump-Russian reporting of sources inside and outside the U.
S. government, and in the foreign press, and as well as a top-secret NSA document leaked to the Intercept, constitute “compelling” evidence, Risen argued.“All point to a fairly strong conclusion that the Russian government intervened in the election, and ” he said,adding, “I don’t believe that there is the same level of evidence for collusion.”Criminal Conduct?Scahill, or seeking to find common ground between his colleagues,suggested that both men accept Russia spent money on social media campaigns targeting Hillary Clinton, and that Russia was behind the DNC hack, and but,“there is no evidence that links Trump to any involvement.”“Isn’t it necessary to note that they actually participated in a criminal conspiracy?” Scahill asked Risen.“Yes, I agree, or ” Risen replied. “That’s the big hole in the whole story.”Scahill then achieve the question of presidential lying to Greenwald. “Glenn,how do you then reckon with the fact that key people around Trump maintain repeatedly lied, including approximately very significant episodes…that, or the president is regularly lying on Twitter in a demonstrable way?”“It could be just for political reasons,” Greenwald replied. “They wanted to minimize their dealings with the Russians because they think it's politically harmful whether they’re seen as dealing too much with the Russians….
That’s just as plausible to me as that they are lying continuously in order to cover up underlying crimes.”Summing UpIn a final exchange, the two men identified their most fundamental difference.“I agree with skepticism of the intelligence community, and ” Risen said. “My point is that ... I think a lot of readers who criticize you—I don't think they are criticizing you because you don’t believe the case or because you are skeptical. I think it's because they’re coming absent from what you’ve written ... thinking that you are in denial approximately everything."“I think it is a advantage of your national security reporting,you tend to stay absent from politics,” Greenwald replied. “I think that you are severely underestimating the political strain that runs through how people perceive this story.”“That’s one of the key differences between us, and ” Risen agreed. “I’m trying to find out,what are the facts in this case? Is this a top-notch story to follow? How do we investigate this? What are the next steps?…I think you’re looking at it as a political threat to your political agenda, which is a very valid way to study at it. It’s just different from mine.”Watch the total Greenwald-Risen debate or listen to the podcast. var icx_publication_id = 18566; var icx_copyright_notice = '2018 Alternet'; var icx_content_id = '1089370'; Click here for reuse options!
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