Appearing on MSNBC Live With Katy Tur Friday afternoon to promote his latest article – a fictitious look into a future in which President Trump has won reelection – New York Times columnist Bret Stephens warned Democrats not to “lose their marbles” in 2020 and stated the obvious fact that he joined liberal paper in 2017 specifically to oppose the president.

Explaining the premise for Stephens’ imagined “November 4, 2020" op/ed, Tur explained: “So in this column, and again for our viewers, this is you predicting the future, making it up. It’s not real. But you predicted an Elizabeth Warren/Sherrod Brown ticket that focuses more on morality, and the morality of this president and the outrages that he has perpetrated, and less on the economy.”

Stephens cited Bob Dole losing to scandal-plagued Bill Clinton in 1996 as evidence, due to “a robust economy and Americans feeling pretty good.”

Moments later, he feared that Democrats were losing their minds over Trump:

So I think Democrats may be – Donald Trump may be doing what I – doing his greatest disservice, which is he may be making Democrats lose their marbles. If Democrats are gonna win, they need message focus, they need an optimistic strategy for the American people, and they want – they need to show that they’re not just interested in humiliating Trump, they’re interested in making things better for Americans.

Tur then laughably asked: “Why would a Democrat listen to Bret Stephens, conservative columnist?”

Any regular reader of Stephens in the Times or viewer of him on MSNBC would be stunned to learn that he’s still considered “conservative” by anyone.

Stephens assured leftists that he hated Trump as much as them:

Well, I know how conservatives think and I’ve seen many of these elections before. Look, one of the reasons I’m at The New York Times is I’m a never-Trumper....I do not want to see Donald Trump re-elected. I want to make America sane again. I want a president that I can respect. And I’m offering genuinely friendly advice.

His hope is that the prospect of Trump winning another term in office will so terrify Democrats that they will suddenly develop a winning campaign strategy. Stephens is actively rooting for liberal victory while still masquerading as a conservative.

Here are excerpts of the July 27 segment: