A Brazilian right-leaning journalist on Thursday assaulted journalist Glenn Greenwald on air during a radio show. 

The contentious exchange between Greenwald and Augusto Nunes occurred on the live radio show Pânico after Greenwald confronted the journalist about his previous comments on Greenwald’s family. 

Nunes had previously suggested that Greenwald and his husband, Brazilian politician David Miranda, did not have time to care for their children, and that the Juvenile Court should investigate the parents. 

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"I was thinking of this couple: Glenn Greenwald spends the day on Twitter or working as a recipient of stolen messages; David is in Brasilia [...].  Who takes care of the children they adopted?  That's what the Juvenile Court should investigate," Nunes had said,

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Greenwald challenged Nunes on those comments during the show, calling it the "most disgusting thing I've seen in my life."  The journalist then questioned Nunes on if he still believes the previous comments. 

“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 ... them to the shelter, without a mother, without a father, without a family," he said, according to BuzzFeed News. 

Nunes answered, "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 repeatedly called Nunes a coward before the Brazilian journalist pushed Greenwald's face and said, “I’ll show you who has courage.” 

.@ggreenwald was just assaulted by an interviewer on camera.  This is deeply disturbing, to say the least, and part and parcel of the environment in Brazil right now.  Everyone needs to pay attention. 



Solidarity with Glenn, and #LulaLivre.https://t.co/lxi4EW6hwY — Emma Vigeland (@EmmaVigeland) November 7, 2019

Staff for the radio show intervened and attempted to separate them, while Greenwald made an attempted swipe at Nunes’s face. 

Greenwald, an American journalist based in Brazil, is well-known for revealing information on U.S. and British surveillance programs from documents provided by Edward Snowden in 2013.