New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman was ruthlessly mocked on social media Wednesday after he floated the possibility that President Biden could dump Vice President Kamala Harris and select Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) as his running mate in 2024.
In his latest column, Friedman used the example of several opposition groups coming together to form a unity government in Israel, which he likened to the US in terms of going from “Off Broadway to Broadway.”
“It’s the most diverse national unity government in Israel’s history, one that stretches from Jewish settlers on the right all the way to an Israeli-Arab Islamist party and super-liberals on the left,” he wrote. “Most important, it’s holding together, getting stuff done and muting the hyperpolarization that was making Israel ungovernable.”
Friedman then asked: “Is that what America needs in 2024 — a ticket of Joe Biden and Liz Cheney? Or Joe Biden and [Sen.] Lisa Murkowski [R-Alaska], or Kamala Harris and [Sen.] Mitt Romney [R-Utah], or [Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate] Stacey Abrams and Liz Cheney, or [Sen.] Amy Klobuchar [D-Minn.] and Liz Cheney? Or any other such combination.”
With more than a little self-awareness, Friedman admonished readers: “Before you leap into the comments section, hear me out.”
Friedman suggested that Biden can select a Republican like Cheney as a show of unity between political parties. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst“The most storied institution in American journalism has given this man a high-paying job for life. And he farts this out,” tweeted Rolling Stone editor Noah Shachtman.
“Stop using crack,” wrote another Twitter user, identified only asOlivia.
Comic Kathy Griffin also weighed in on the social network.
“Tom! For chrissake, I only have half a lung. We like Biden and Harris. That’s why we picked them,” she said.
”Peak Friedman,” pronounced former Bloomberg News and New York Times columnist Joe Nocera.
“Of all the things that will never happen, this will never happen the most,” tweetedAndrew Weinstein, a former deputy national finance chair of the Democratic National Committee.
Friedman wondered if a dual-party ticket is what “America needs in 2024.” AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File“Why Liz and not Dick?” asked journalistGlenn Greenwald, referring to Cheney’s father, former Vice President Dick Cheney.
“We really are in the worst timeline,” lamented former GOP Rep. Justin Amash on Twitter.
Some users argued the suggestion of dropping Harris from the Democratic ticket, reflected in the Times headline “Biden-Cheney 2024?,” smacked of racism.
“I may not know as much about the #Democrats as Tom Friedman, but I think firing a black woman as VP after a year of doing nothing wrong to replace her with a very conservative Republican is not exactly where the party is at,” opined Twitter userO.T. Ford.
“Operation Erase The Black Woman,” wrote another user,Cristina.
In a September interview with CBS News’ “60 Minutes,” Cheney, vice chair of the House select committee investigating the Capitol riot, was highly critical of both Biden and former President Donald Trump.
”Those who think that by ignoring Trump, he will go away, have been proven wrong. And in my view, the American people, they deserve better than having to choose between what I think are the really disastrous policies of Joe Biden — in a whole range of areas, really bad for our economy, from a national security perspective, what’s happened, what he’s done in Afghanistan, very dangerous policies for the country,” she said.
“But the alternative cannot be a man who doesn’t believe in the rule of law, and who violated his oath of office.”
