On Sunday's Meet the Press, host Chuck Todd asked New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd to explain "Upper West Siders panicking" over the latest polls. Dowd said liberal friends won't read any interviews she does with Trump, that "they would like to censor any stories about Trump and also censor any negative stories about Hillary. They think she should have a total free pass."
TODD: New York Times, I think it was Saturday, Maureen, had a lead that said -- basically interviewing all these Upper West Siders panicking. I think they referred to it as the polls are showing a margin of panic for Clinton supporters. Describe this East Coast freakout that I feel like you’ve seen among the elites this week.
DOWD: Right. My friends -- one of my friends, Leon Wieseltier, calls it a national emergency. My friends won't even read any -- if I do interviews with Trump. They won't read them. And basically, they would like to censor any stories about Trump and also censor any negative stories about Hillary. They think she should have a total free pass because as she said at that fundraiser recently, I'm the only thing standing between you and the abyss.
She added: "And Democratic strategists are taking antacids."
Dowd gave an interview to the Daily Beast to promote a new book that’s a grab bag of new essays and old columns, and included an anti-Trump jeremiad from former AP reporter Rita Beamish. She said a similar thing, but added her disapproval:
“A lot of my friends won’t read my interviews with Trump because they’re like, ‘You shouldn’t be talking to him!’ and giving him space to say anything,” Dowd confided. “Rita has a very finely tuned moral compass, so I told her, ‘OK, give it your best shot.’ Rita is a righteous voice.”
And doesn’t Maureen Dowd have a finely tuned moral compass?
“I don’t know,” she dodged.
Yet she clearly does. When it comes to Trump vs. Clinton, Dowd is an equal opportunity faultfinder....
She added: "There is plenty to reproach Trump for, and I do. But that doesn't mean that Hillary is above reproach. I think it's really bad for democracy -- this idea that she should get a pass, that no one should say anything critical about her because the alternative is 'the abyss,' as she said at a fundraiser. I don't think that's a healthy attitude."
