Bill Maher and Glenn Greenwald clash over ‘totally batsh*t’ Edward Snowden | The Raw Story http://t.co/I0N5VgfHak

— Kragar (@Kragar_LGF) January 18, 2014

Maher then quoted from Snowden’s “open letter to the people of Brazil” last month, in which Snowden said programs like the NSA’s surveillance efforts “were never about terrorism” but were instead about “social control, and diplomatic manipulation.”

“That’s crazy,” Maher told Greenwald. “They were about stopping terrorism. They may have gone too far. But everybody in the government isn’t out to get you.”

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Greenwald further argued that the reporting enabled by Snowden’s information showed that the NSA had the ability to “slow down the internet” by storing data long enough to search through a person’s search history and correspondence.

“He’s a 29 years old who’s not a trained politician,” Greenwald continued. “He doesn’t have aides whispering in his ear what he should say. He’s not adept at that. That’s what makes him so impressive — it was an act of conscience.”

“No one is arguing with that Glenn,” Maher said, cutting in. “What I said is, every time he opens his mouth, he always says something f*cking nuts. When he says, ‘They know every friend you’ve ever discussed something with,’ we’ll just have to agree to disagree on what’s f*cking nuts.”