Thomas Friedman’s anti-Trump New York Times column is red meat for liberals

New York Times opinion columnist Thomas Friedman wrote an over-the-top piece designed to incite fear with anti-Trump rhetoric such as, “the biggest threat to the integrity of our democracy today is in the Oval Office,” and the liberal elite are eating it up despite a glaring omission.

The column, headlined, “Whatever Trump is hiding is hurting all of us now,” has been praised by the left. Friedman even told CNN that it “may be the most widely circulated column” of his career. The liberal red meat starts off by proclaiming that “our democracy is in serious danger” because “President Trump is either totally compromised by the Russians or is a towering fool, or both.”

Friedman, who once compared Russian meddling to both Pearl Harbor and the attacks of September 11, 2001 during an appearance on MSNBC, wrote that Trump is “unwilling or unable to defend America against a Russian campaign to divide and undermine our democracy.” He lists Trump’s real estate empire, rumored sexual misbehavior and simply believing Russian President Vladimir Putin as possible explanations for the theory.

“Trump is either hiding something so threatening to himself, or he’s criminally incompetent to be commander in chief,” Friedman wrote before explaining what type of leader he feels America needs at the moment – which should be noted is clearly a man based on the pronouns used.

“He would educate the public on the scale of the problem; he would bring together all the stakeholders — state and local election authorities, the federal government, both parties and all the owners of social networks that the Russians used to carry out their interference — to mount an effective defense; and he would bring together our intelligence and military experts to mount an effective offense against Putin — the best defense of all,” Friedman wrote.

However, Media Research Center Vice President Dan Gainor pointed out that Friedman “missed two key facts” in his attack on the president.

“One, that the Obama administration refused to do anything but tell the Russians to stop their hacking endeavors. The Washington Post says the Russians have tried to influence American elections since 1960, so what they did here isn't news to anyone inside the Beltway,” Gainor told Fox News.

The word “Obama” does not appear once in Friedman’s piece. Even MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough said it’s a “very legitimate question to ask” why Obama didn’t do more on the Russian threat.

The second thing that Friedman overlooked is that the U.S. just killed “dozens of Russians” in a battle in Syria.

“That is according to The New York Times, where Friedman works. That's hardly the act of a president who is bowing to Russia's every wish,” Gainor said.

The media elite has devoured the meat cooked up by Friedman, as CNN interviewed him about how the “column came about,” MSNBC told viewers the piece is "worth your time” and a variety of left-leaning pundits have tweeted out their favorite quotes from the op-ed.

“It's #1 on the N.Y. Times' ‘Most Emailed,’ ‘Most Viewed’ and ‘Most Shared on Facebook,’” Axios touted.

While the column has been widely shared and praised by liberals, not everyone agrees with the attack on the White House. Radio host Mark Simone called Friedman “completely insane” for writing a “hysterical column claiming Trump not just colluding, but is owned by the Russians.”

Conservative Action News published a rebuttal to Friedman’s piece that disputed particular statements from the column and claimed “no intellectually honest person” can say Trump is compromised by Russia.

“No, our ‘democracy’ is not in serious danger. But I’m pretty sure Thomas Friedman’s sanity is in serious danger,” the Conservative Action News wrote.

Perhaps the column was on Trump’s mind when he took to Twitter on Tuesday morning.

“I have been much tougher on Russia than Obama, just look at the facts,” Trump tweeted.