The Washington Post’s editorial page will not make a presidential endorsement this year or “in any future presidential election,” the newspaper’s publisher and chief executive officer announced Friday.
“We recognize that this will be read in a range of ways, including as a tacit endorsement of one candidate, or as a condemnation of another, or as an abdication of responsibility. That is inevitable. We don’t see it that way,” Will Lewis said in a statement about the decision published on The Post’s website.
“We see it as consistent with the values The Post has always stood for and what we hope for in a leader: character and courage in service to the American ethic, veneration for the rule of law, and respect for human freedom in all its aspects,” Lewis added. “We also see it as a statement in support of our readers’ ability to make up their own minds on this, the most consequential of American decisions — whom to vote for as the next president.”
The Post has endorsed a presidential contender in every general election since 1992. Lewis said his newsroom is “going back to” the practice of not formally backing White House aspirants, explaining that The Post did not make an endorsement during various presidential campaigns, including in 1960 or 1972.
The move was immediately blasted by Martin Baron, who edited The Post from 2012 until his retirement in 2021. Baron portrayed the decision as an “invitation” for former President Donald Trump to “intimidate” Jeff Bezos, the billionaire Amazon founder who purchased the newspaper for $250 million in 2013.
“This is cowardice, with democracy as its casualty. @realdonaldtrump will see this as an invitation to further intimidate owner @jeffbezos (and others),” Baron said in a post on the social media platform X. “Disturbing spinelessness at an institution famed for courage.”
Trump sharply criticized Bezos during his presidency and derided the newspaper as “The Fake News Washington Post.” He has repeatedly assailed the news media over the last eight years, sometimes referring to the American press as the “enemy of the people.”
Lewis’ announcement came days after news broke that The Los Angeles Times would not endorse Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris ahead of the Nov. 5 general election. The news website Semafor reported that the newspaper was preparing to back Harris, but owner Patrick Soon-Shiong blocked the editorial page from getting behind one of the two candidates. (NBC News has not independently verified that report.)
In response, Mariel Garza, the editorials editor of The Los Angeles Times, resigned Wednesday. In an interview with the Columbia Journalism Review, Garza said in part: “I am resigning because I want to make it clear that I am not okay with us being silent. In dangerous times, honest people need to stand up. This is how I’m standing up.”
Soon-Shiong, in a post on X on Wednesday, said in part that the editorial board was “provided the opportunity to draft a factual analysis of all the POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE policies by EACH candidate during their tenures at the White House, and how these policies affected the nation.”
“In this way, with this clear and non-partisan information side-by-side, our readers could decide who would be worthy of being President for the next four years,” he added. “Instead of adopting this path as suggested, the Editorial Board chose to remain silent and I accepted their decision.”
Shortly after The Post announced its decision, Soon-Shiong tweeted a screenshot of an article about the news.
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