During an appearance on CNN’s “Smerconish” on Saturday, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman said that although he wanted to see a defeated Iran, he was concerned that a victory would benefit President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“You’ve written yourself that you would welcome regime change,” host Michael Smerconish said. “The president claims that there’s been regime change, there’s been leadership change, but there hasn’t been regime change. True?”
“Yes, there’s been some leadership change,” Friedman replied. “Obviously, certain people have been killed. But this is the Iranian regime. It goes right down to the mayoral level. All the institutions are the same. Yes. I find myself, Michael, in a situation where I really want to see Iran defeated militarily because this regime is a terrible regime for its people in the region. And nothing would improve the region more than the replacement of this regime in Iran with one was focused on enabling its people to realize their full potential and integrating peacefully with other countries and stop occupying Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen.”
“So I’m all for that,” he added. “The problem is I really don’t want to see Bibi Netanyahu or Donald Trump politically strengthened by this war because they are two awful human beings. They are both engaged in anti- democratic projects in their own countries. They’re both alleged crooks. They are terrible, terrible people doing terrible things to America’s standing in the world and Israel standing in the world. And so I really find myself torn. I want to see Iran militarily defeated, but I do not want to see these two terrible people strengthened.”
(h/t RCP Video)
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