"He's a green card holder, which is a path to citizenship," Greenwald explained. "When American citizens marry foreign nationals, as Donald Trump, for example, did twice, as Khalil's wife, who's an American citizen, did as well. They get put on this path to permanent residence."
"The Supreme Court has said for 200 years that green card holders, permanent residents, people in the United States legally have the protection of the Bill of Rights, which obviously includes free speech," he continued. "There's no evidence at all that he's a supporter of Hamas. These protest movements at Columbia and elsewhere were filled with Jewish students."
Greenwald compared Khalil to those Jan. 6 protesters who did not break any laws.
"You know, at January 6, and I've been a long advocate of the idea that liberals and Democrats wildly exaggerated it, it wasn't an insurrection in my view, it was a riot, but there were members of Trump's, there were Trump supporters who violently beat cops up, who used violence in order to occupy those buildings," he said. "I would never say that means that anyone who's a Trump supporter or even anybody who was at that protest is guilty of the worst acts of others who were at that protest."
"So I think we have to be careful to focus on the individual, not just sweeping generalizations about what we think Arabs are or Muslims are or protesters are," he added. "Free speech, which the Trump movement has been saying they believe in so fervently, only really matters if you stand up for the rights of those who disagree with you, who express the views that you most hate."
Following the interview, Greenwald was criticized by conservatives on social media.
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"Filthy waste of viewers' time was anti-Trump advocate Howard Kurtz joining forces with fellow hater, the smirking Glenn Greenwald, to trash Trump as they celebrate their apparently mutual 'martyred' hero, Mahmoud Khalil," one popular conservative wrote on X. "Kurtz's gushing to Greenwald is suspiciously telling!"
"Glenn Greenwald, I Heard You About Kahlil Mohammad This Morning," right-wing commenter Ed Thoma opined. "And You Know What. As An American, I'm Tired of the Muslim Activists in my Country. If we can Deport Him for Causing Problems, Then Do it."
"Glenn Greenwald is really only an UN-Constitutional Lawyer!!!" Mark Ahlers argued.
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