Twitter fight: Harry Reid spokesman vs. Free Beacon reporter

Sen. Harry Reid spokesman Adam Jentleson and Washington Free Beacon reporter Lachlan Markay got into a prolonged Twitter fight on Thursday, over Markay's report that Reid funneled federal subsidies to companies that contributed to a clean energy group run by Reid's former staffers.

Markay reported Thursday morning that Reid helped steer tens of millions of dollars to companies that contributed to the Clean Energy Project, and mocked Jentleson for defending those subsidies. While the story was cast as a tale of political cronyism, Jentleson said in the story that Reid's office was "glad" the Free Beacon was writing about the issue to highlight support for green energy programs and the jobs they create.

If your response to cronyism allegations is "But look how many jobs the cronies created!" you're clearly missing the point.

— Lachlan Markay (@lachlan) March 5, 2015

Jentleson complained about the story on Twitter, arguing that the clean energy project has "broad bipartisan support," and said Markay's story never mentioned that. "You know there's bipartisan support, you just chose to omit it from your story."

Markay said he was just reminding clean energy companies "that they have to grease the right pockets first!"

.@KristenOrthman @burgessev @AJentleson Happy to remind would-be cleantech entrepreneurs that they have to grease the right pockets first!

— Lachlan Markay (@lachlan)

March 5, 2015

The two continued the spat, with Jentleson accusing Markay of only using facts that support his "preconceived ideological narrative."

"If I wanted to write a press release on how great cronyism is for Nevada… well, I'd be doing your job for you," Markay shot back.

It's a good day for a Twitter fight: snow was expected to fall all day in Washington, D.C., and both the federal government and Congress are closed. See how some more of it went here: