NYT Columnist Predicts Post-Donald Trump Battle For Soul Of GOP

Thomas Friedman, a three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist, on Monday predicted a brutal battle for the soul of the GOP once Donald Trump is no longer president.

In an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, the pundit and author said he foresees Republicans fighting like “scorpions in a bottle” to seize control of the party. And the process was necessary, he said, to root out the “craziness” within the GOP under Trump.

“I think the most important thing is that that party fractured. So the reason these ideas scaled was actually the party was split inside the Republican Party,” Friedman said. “But because they had the White House and the Senate, they were able to paper over a lot, cement over a lot of those splits with goodies.”

“They will not have the Senate. They will not have the White House,” he continued. “You are about to see, I believe, conflict within that party. I mean, it will be scorpions in a bottle. And that’s actually healthy because that fight has to happen. Because when that happens, if they are out of power for a while, there’s nothing that cures crazy ideas in Washington more than being out of power.”

Check out the video here:

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham has abased himself to be close to power, says writer Tom Friedman.

"What happens when they have no power to be close to?" he asks, as Republicans prepare for an era without control of the House, Senate or White House. pic.twitter.com/o1bz3KpNuh

— Anderson Cooper 360° (@AC360) January 19, 2021

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.