Summarizing the long and not very grammatical transcript of a video (which I haven't watched): Greenwald, after explaining that he's been working on both of th

Summarizing the long and not very grammatical transcript of a video (which I haven't watched): Greenwald, after explaining that he's been working on both of these pardons behind the scenes, thinks that Trump had been convinced to pardon one or possibly both of these, but was blindsided by the attempt to impeach him at the end of his term. The populist side of the Republican party (Rand Paul, Matt Gaetz, Thomas Massey) wanted pardons, but the establishment side (Marco Rubio, Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham) considered both to be traitors and vehemently opposed pardons. Greenwald thinks that establishment Republican senators made it very clear to him that if he pardoned Assange or Snowden, they would vote to convict, potentially barring him from holding public office in the future. Realizing that the threat was real, Trump caved. (Fixed error thanks etc-hosts below)