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10 tweets,
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1/ Glenn Greenwald argues that I’m wrong to accuse Russia of having gained leverage over Trump through the secret Moscow Tower deal. A short thread about how bizarre his argument is:
2/ His evidence that Putin did not gain hidden leverage over Trump is that Trump’s government has done a number of things Putin didn’t like. Well, yes.
3/ Greenwald claims I never addressed evidence of the government taking anti-Russia steps. To the contrary, my original piece explains the tension between Trump and a party that has “sharply constrained” his room to alter Russia policy: nymag.com/intelligencer/… 
4/ The evidence that Trump is working in tension with his government vis a vis Russia is extensive. Trump and Putin hold private meetings, excluding any other US officials! Trump has confiscated the notes! washingtonpost.com/world/national…
5/ As I noted, many of those anti-Russia or pro-NATO steps were taken over Trump’s fierce, sometimes enraged, objections. One of Greenwald’s examples is a law passed with a veto-proof supermajority he couldn’t stop.
6/ If you think Trump’s behavior toward Russia and NATO is broadly consistent with that of other Republican officials, I don’t know what to say to you.
7/ More absurdly, Greenwald is implicitly arguing that the lure of a deal worth several hundred million dollars did not influence Trump’s stance toward Russia.
8/ This is Glenn Greenwald! The through line of his career is finding corruption everywhere, even where nobody else can detect it.
9/ Imagine Hillary Clinton had been secretly setting up a deal where a private interest funneled hundreds of millions of dollars into her campaign, and lying to conceal it. Now imagine the money went not to her campaign but her pocket.
10/ Would Greenwald be picking out actions Clinton took contrary to that benefactor’s interest, to prove she hadn’t been corrupted? I… don’t think so. But maybe he just sees Trump as the world’s most incorruptible man.
