President Donald Trump smiles during a meeting with Chilean president Sebastian Pinera, in the Oval Office of the White House, Friday, Sept. 28, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

During a sweeping interview with President Trump on Wednesday, George Stephanopoulos asked, “If foreigners, if Russia, if China, if someone else offers you information on an opponent, should they accept it or should they call the FBI.”

Trump replied, “I think maybe you do both. I think you might want to listen. There’s nothing wrong with listening. If somebody called from a country, Norway, ‘Oh, we have information on your opponent,’ I think I’d want to hear it.” (Relevant portion starts at 1:45 on the video below.)

Trump’s response immediately became red meat for the liberal media who were consumed with self-righteous indignation. Considering that the Hillary Clinton campaign and the DNC paid $12 million to a foreigner to not only dig up dirt on candidate Donald Trump, but to disseminate it among the Washington political community, the Intelligence agencies and then to the media, their reaction was extraordinary indeed.

One of the most amusing of all came from Obama’s DNI Director, James Clapper, who told CBS News’ Anderson Cooper that he was just “stunned.” It is believed that Clapper leaked word to the media that former-FBI Director James Comey had briefed the President-elect on the Steele dossier, which gave them the green light to break the story. (Clapper’s remarks begin at 1:40 in the video below.)

Clapper said:

I’ve run out of adjectives to describe my reaction to this. Incredible, amazing, I think stunning and disturbing, that the President would advocate the use of…accepting information provided by a foreign country, notably a foreign adversary. And in doing so, completely overlooking the fact that this could well be, probably would be disinformation. In other words, completely phony. (Anderson Cooper shudders at the thought of this.) And to endorse that, and in doing so, endorse…undercut the FBI and its Director is just incredible. I can’t get over the duplicity of it. Here, with all the criticism about the…the…infamous dossier, and you know, you can’t use it because it’s not valid, you can’t accept it, and that’s…you know…in this case, it’s okay.

Let me repeat, “I can’t get over the duplicity of it.” Tell me again where Christopher Steele got his dossier material.

MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle asked her guest panel, “Is the president going to be reported as a security threat after that interview?” The panelists responded similarly, all agreeing that Trump was “sending a message to foreign governments that it’s “open season” for them to interfere in U.S. elections.”

The 2020 Democratic candidates, of course, found Trump’s answer equally appalling. Here are some of their tweets:

Joe Biden: “President Trump is once again welcoming foreign interference in our elections. This isn’t about politics. It is a threat to our national security. An American President should not seek their aid and abet those who seek to undermine democracy.”

Corey Booker: “It’s not “oppo research” — it’s foreign interference in US elections. That you would say this is disgraceful. That you would do it from the Oval Office (yet again) proves you’re unfit for the office you hold”.

Elizabeth Warren: “The # MuellerReport made it clear: A foreign government attacked our 2016 elections to support Trump, Trump welcomed that help, and Trump obstructed the investigation. Now, he said he’d do it all over again. It’s time to impeach Donald Trump.”

Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro: “After seeking and receiving the help of our adversaries to to get elected in 2016, Donald Trump is now essentially calling for an open season on our 2020 elections. Once again, he’s putting his interests above our nation’s, and risking and the integrity of our elections.”

Sen. Kamala Harris told the Huffington Post, “I am concerned, and the American public should be concerned. It’s sending a signal to our adversaries around the world ― North Korea, Russia, fill in the blank ― saying, ‘Hey, come on in for 2020.'”

Any one of these candidates would listen to a foreigner who told them they had dirt on Trump in a New York minute.

In February 2018, Adam Schiff was pretty quick to listen to (and engage with) a prankster who called his office to say he had naked pictures of President Trump. He claimed to be Andriy Parubiy, the chairman of the Ukrainian Parliament.” (Audio can be heard here.)

Sean Hannity pointed out that “listening is much different than lying, spying and paying for Russian lies and spreading it through the media by deep state operatives and then using it as the basis of a FISA warrant.”

As Attorney General William Barr’s investigation gets into high gear, Democrats have doubled down on their accusations against the President. They talk about impeachment as if he’s actually committed a crime. Their ability to remain oblivious to reality is breathtaking.

Hopefully, in the not too distant future, they will become the accused.

How should we punish them? Should we send SWAT teams to their homes because they are such dangerous criminals? Bankrupt them with legal fees? Place them in solitary confinement? Or maybe send them to Rikers Island, just because.