Glenn Greenwald: Democrats Sound A Doomsday Cult With Russia, Continue To Promise “It’s Coming”

Glenn Greenwald appeared on ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight’ this week to discuss how the media profited greatly from coverage of the Russia investigation and how government agencies like the NSA were used to “spy and infiltrate” a presidential campaign. Greenwald responded to complaints of Trump being a “threat to democracy” while investigators used FISA warrants to spy and listen in to calls for something that didn’t turn out to be the case.

“How is it that our discourse has been drowned out for almost three years by a conspiracy theory or really a set of conspiracy theories as inflammatory and as dangerous as you can possibly get? That turned out to be totally untrue. Who started this conspiracy theory? How are the vast invasive powers of the FBI, NSA and CIA used to spy and infiltrate a campaign and spy on American citizens in the name of a conspiracy?” Greenwald asked.

“You want to talk about threats to democracy? How about spying on and listening in on the calls of American citizens by convincing a FISA Court that they are Russian agents, when then you unleash a prosecutor for 22 months who concludes that they aren’t Russian agents, that there’s no evidence to suggest that that was the case. That’s the real scandal and that’s where the investigation is now going to turn and that’s why there’s panicking about Bill Barr because they know that he is going to unflinchingly pursue that,” the journalist said.

TUCKER CARLSON, FOX NEWS: Glenn Greenwald founded “The Intercept.” He has followed the Russian story since the very first day. We’re happy to have him for the first time in the studio tonight. Glenn, thanks very much for coming on.

So if you think about it for a second, it’s a little strange that this is continuing since you know the Mueller report is out, the President likely not going to be impeached on the basis of anything the Mueller report found. So what is the point of continuing with the story?

GLENN GREENWALD, CO-FOUNDING EDITOR, “THE INTERCEPT”: And the point is everything that you just said, namely that for three years, it’s almost been three years. It started in mid-2016. The Democrats have put all their eggs in one basket, which is that they’ve insisted the central theme of the Trump presidency is that he was a Russian agent who collaborated with the Kremlin in the election, and they all agreed that Robert Mueller was going to be empowered to get to the bottom of this and we were all going to accept whatever it was that Mueller found.

And what Mueller found was that the entire conspiracy theory was a hoax, that there’s no evidence to establish that it’s true, and they led their flock to believe for so long and profited greatly from it. Cable networks that did it saw massive increases in their ratings. Newspapers that did it saw huge subscription increases. They made tons of money exploiting people like con artists, and now it’s kind of like the leader of an apocalyptic Doomsday cult, who keeps promising the world is going to end on a certain date and then the day comes and the world still goes.

And so you need to keep giving people reasons to follow you and to believe and we are now descended from Trump is a Russian agent. He is controlled by the Kremlin. He conspired with the Russians to people eating fried chicken, because they say that Bill Barr waited three weeks before releasing the entire Mueller report that he himself gave to the public.

CARLSON: Where’s the part where we stop, assess what we’ve just seen for the past three years, hold people accountable for it, learn something from it and move on?

GREENWALD: I think the reason that you’re seeing so much intense rage toward Bill Barr is because they know what he’s now going to do, which is what journalists should be doing, and at least some of us are which is asking the question, which is now for me the central question in American politics — how is it that our discourse has been drowned out for almost three years by a conspiracy theory or really a set of conspiracy theories as inflammatory and as dangerous as you can possibly get? That turned out to be totally untrue.

Who started this conspiracy theory? How are the vast invasive powers of the FBI, NSA and CIA used to spy and infiltrate a campaign and spy on American citizens in the name of a conspiracy? As a leftist, somebody who is steeped in the history of the Church Commission, the abuses of the FBI under Hoover — these are the most serious things that can happen.

CARLSON: I agree.

GREENWALD: You want to talk about threats to democracy? How about spying on and listening in on the calls of American citizens by convincing a FISA Court that they are Russian agents, when then you unleash a prosecutor for 22 months who concludes that they aren’t Russian agents, that there’s no evidence to suggest that that was the case. That’s the real scandal and that’s where the investigation is now going to turn and that’s why there’s panicking about Bill Barr because they know that he is going to unflinchingly pursue that.

CARLSON: I couldn’t agree more. And in fact, that’s where the show is turning right now. Glenn Greenwald, thank you very much.