While on Thursday's Cuomo Prime Time, New York Times columnist Tom Friedman was behaving again as a partisan cheerleader for Democrats, declaring it would be a "disaster" if Republicans won control of Congress next year and derailed President Joe Biden's agenda.
As Friedman and CNN host Chris Cuomo discussed the Republican party's continued expressions of support for Donald Trump, Cuomo fretted: "They are going for white fright, and the momentum is in the direction they're headed, not in any other direction, Tom."
Friedman declared that it would be "healthy" if Republicans failed to win control of Congress despite historical advantages:
If they do come out of these mid-terms not holding the House -- not winning the House back -- not winning the Senate back, I think that would be one of the most healthy things that can possibly happen to our country now, because that then, Chris, will force that party to confront their Trump problem.
He soon added:
If we have a very different mid-term, I think there's a chance that we'll get some decent, stable governance. If the House Republicans -- given what they have come to embrace -- win the House, the last two years of the Biden administration, they're going to be crazy. These people when Trump was in power, they at least had some incentive not to blow the whole government up. If Trump is not in power, their incentive is going to be to completely derail Biden. And if that happens, I mean, we just have no time to lose. And that would be a disaster for the country.
Cuomo continued to worry about the possibility of Republican bad behavior as he followed up:
Well, look, I mean, Mitch McConnell told you that's where they're headed right now. Their position is opposition. Here's my question for you. How do you get ahead of the determinative issue of the mid-terms, which we know right now, which is election security? They're going to say that any race that doesn't go their way is rigged. What should the media do? What should the system do to prepare for that in advance? Because it's going to happen.
The liberal Times columnist complained about Georgia's recently passed voting law as he misleadingly responded:
Well, the scary thing, Chris -- and I wrote about this in that column you referred to -- is that people have focused on the election security laws that some of these states have passed like Georgia, where you can't give someone in line a glass of water. That's actually a red herring and a very dangerous thing that is going on right now. It is a mugging of democracy in broad daylight.
Last year, Friedman was very outspoken in vowing to vote against President Trump in the election no matter what it took. After the election, he called the party a "cancer."
This latest equivalent of a free ad for the Democratic party masquerading as a news segment was sponsored in part by Liberty Mutual. Their contact information is linked.
Transcript follows:
CNN
Cuomo Prime Time
May 13, 2021
9:20 p.m. Eastern
CHRIS CUOMO: They are going for white fright, and the momentum is in the direction they're headed, not in any other direction, Tom.
TOM FRIEDMAN, NEW YORK TIMES: Yeah, there's no question, Chris. You know, I was thinking in preparing for our conversation that the midterm elections this year, 2022 -- I mean next year, 2022, they are going to be hugely important for this reason. The Republicans go into these mid-terms with so many advantages after the last census -- through gerrymandering, they're automatically going to get a few more seats, and historically mid-terms tend to work against the, you know, incumbent party. So they've got a lot of advantages.
What we're going the see in these mid-terms as this party that has now made it a prerequisite to be a leader in this party and to be a candidate endorsed by the leader of this party that you have to embrace the big lie. We're going to see if they actually suffer in the mid-terms for that. If they do come out of these mid-terms not holding the House -- not winning the House back -- not winning the Senate back, I think that would be one of the most healthy things that can possibly happen to our country now, because that then, Chris, will force that party to confront their Trump problem.
CUOMO: Maybe.
FRIEDMAN: I think the interesting political question -- because they're going to want to survive -- if they lose the mid-terms, the idea they're going to go into 2024 backing him, well, that would be political suicide. And so I think there's a really important election, and I think that it's going to be really interesting. We see these lists of principled Republicans who have said they're not going to, you know, support Trump. We have seen what Liz Cheney has done. You know, if only three to five percent of Republicans decide that they're not going to sign on to this, we could have a very different mid-term.
If we have a very different mid-term, I think there's a chance that we'll get some decent, stable governance. If the House Republicans -- given what they have come to embrace -- win the House, the last two years of the Biden administration, they're going to be crazy. These people when Trump was in power, they at least had some incentive not to blow the whole government up. If Trump is not in power, their incentive is going to be to completely derail Biden. And if that happens, I mean, we just have no time to lose. And that would be a disaster for the country.
CUOMO: Well, look, I mean, Mitch McConnell told you that's where they're headed right now. Their position is opposition. Here's my question for you. How do you get ahead of the determinative issue of the mid-terms, which we know right now, which is election security? They're going to say that any race that doesn't go their way is rigged. What should the media do? What should the system do to prepare for that in advance? Because it's going to happen.
FRIEDMAN: Well, the scary thing, Chris -- and I wrote about this in that column you referred to -- is that people have focused on the election security laws that some of these states have passed like Georgia, where you can't give someone in line a glass of water. That's actually a red herring and a very dangerous thing that is going on right now. It is a mugging of democracy in broad daylight.
