NSA Whistle-Blower Scandal: Guardian Columnist Glenn Greenwald Spars With MSNBC's 'Morning Joe' Co-Host Mika Brzezinski [VIDEO]

Glenn Greenwald, a columnist for the Guardian, the newspaper that broke the story of secret government surveillance orders given to Verizon and the NSA program behind it, appeared on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” to talk about the scandal surrounding the secret program. While he discussed aspects of the program, Greenwald also sparred with host Mika Brzezinski during the interview.

Greenwald snapped at Brzezinski after she asked, “What is it the Obama administration is doing that is so stunning? Can you tell us exactly what they’re seeing and accessing?”

Greenwald snapped back and responded, “I just told you what it is, Mika. We reported on it.”

Later in the interview, Greenwald snapped back again at Brzezinski after she asked for clarification regarding the use of surveillance data: “It’s not like there’s haphazard probing into our emails. Can we put this into context so we understand exactly what’s going on?”

Greenwald responded, accusing Brzezinski of using White House talking points, “Yeah, I’ll put it into context for you: The White House talking points that you’re using are completely misleading and false.”

After further expanding his views on the scandal, he further reiterated, “Those talking points that you’re reading from are completely false as anybody who has paid remote attention to the surveillance debates knows over the last 10 years.

Brzezinski then rebutted his accusation, stating,“Glenn, I’m not reading talking points.”

She then asked “Is this legal or illegal? Or Richard Haass, can you help me out here since, Glenn doesn’t want to answer the question? Is the law being broken here?”

Brzezinski also noted, “I question all the issues that this raises. I’m personally concerned as well. But I’d like to put this in perspective. Is the law being broken?”

Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, responded, “The law was broken by one person, who was Mr. [Edward] Snowden [former contract employee for the NSA].”

When asked about his views on the law, he added, “Congress has had many chances to roll it back. That’s the way things work.”

Watch the heated exchange in the video above.