Eric Swalwell vs. Richard Grenell over Germany's energy industry: Who you got?

Dem Rep. Eric Swalwell and Richard Grenell, a former Director of National Intelligence and ambassador to Germany, over this tweet that rightfully pointed out Germany’s then Foreign Minister, Heiko Maas criticized President Donald Trump in 2018, saying “Germany is not dependent on Russia, especially not on energy issues. … We will not tire of countering this with the real facts…”:

Germany’s than Foreign Minister @HeikoMaas 3,5 years ago on Trump’s criticism against NordStream2: “There is no German dependency on Russia, for sure not in energy topic. We will not be tired to oppose (Trump) with facts”. This man needs to be answer some questions in The Hague. https://t.co/6Xallzkp9g

— Sergej Sumlenny (@sumlenny) March 7, 2022

Um, but Trump was right back in 2018 and Germany is admitting that’s it’s dependent on Russian oil right now:

Year after year Germans kept saying that Russian energy imports create "inderpendence" as opposed to dependence. Now that it actually matters, Berlin argues Germany is too dependent on Russian energy to sanction it. https://t.co/lSBRKgf4HZ

— Marcel Dirsus (@marceldirsus) March 7, 2022

Anyway, here’s where the fight started after Grenell tweeted that Merkel and Mass “built a partnership with Putin” and “They resisted calls from Trump and some German experts who saw this pipeline as too much leverage and influence from Russia”:

Merkel and Maas together built a partnership with Putin.

They resisted calls from Trump and some German experts who saw this pipeline as too much leverage and influence from Russia.

They were wrong and should answer for this chaos now. https://t.co/SBmFP5aBcB

— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) March 7, 2022

Now, Swalwell, rather than actually answering Grenell’s tweet, played the Nazi card:

Did Fang Fang tell you that? Because she got you again. It’s illegal to be a Nazi in Germany.

He is a member of the Bundestag representing the AFD – and he came to the 4th of July party like every member of the Bundestag. https://t.co/bftP5Es9aL

— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) March 8, 2022

Swalwell then doubled down on the Nazi card, still ignoring the original tweet on Germany claiming they were not dependent on Russian energy:

Verdict: Slick Rick rolled with the Nazis. Thanks for playing @RichardGrenell. Do us a favor and sit out future conversations about Europe. You showed your true colors when you betrayed America for the AFD Nazi party. https://t.co/x899jQS2ts

— Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) March 8, 2022

And boom goes the Fang Fang card — again:

I didn’t play. You did. With a Chinese spy.

You don’t know a Fang about German political parties. https://t.co/TsfUATjEuN

— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) March 8, 2022

Grenell added that Swalwell’s relationship with Fang Fang is not a nothing story:

Believe me. It’s not a nothing story. I was acting DNI.

— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) March 8, 2022

In response, Swalwell played the — wait for it! — Nazi card:

If there was anything on me you would have declassified it. There was nothing. So you couldn’t.

But it’s 100% declassified that you hung out with Nazis.

Game over. https://t.co/lGULEdtSa8

— Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) March 8, 2022

Grenell then explained that the reason the story more-or-less died is that protecting “sources and methods” is more important than dunking on Swalwell: