The Washington Post’s editorial board will not make a presidential endorsement this year or “in any future presidential election,” the newspaper’s publisher and chief executive announced Friday.
Post editorial page staff members had drafted an endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris that had yet to be published, two sources briefed on the sequence of events told The Post. The decision not to publish the Harris endorsement was made by The Post’s owner, billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, according to the sources. NBC News has not independently verified that account.
“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 in the statement, which has been met with more than 9,000 reader comments. “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.”
In a statement, Post chief communications officer Kathy Baird said: “This was a Washington Post decision to not endorse, and I would refer you to the publisher’s statement in full.”
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 Marty 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 Bezos, 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 famous for courage.”
Trump sharply criticized Bezos during his presidency and derided the newspaper as “The Fake News Washington Post.” He has repeatedly attacked the news media over the last eight years, sometimes referring to the American press as the “enemy of the people.” In the first year of Trump’s term, the newspaper adopted the slogan “Democracy Dies in Darkness.”
Eight columnists at The Post called the decision a “terrible mistake” in a one-paragraph opinion article published hours later.
“This is a moment for the institution to be making clear its commitment to democratic values, the rule of law and international alliances, and the threat that Donald Trump poses to them,” the columnists wrote.
The leaders of the Washington Post Guild, which represents members of the newsroom, said in a statement on social media that it was “deeply concerned” by the decision. “This decision undercuts the work of our members at a time when we should be building our readers’ trust, not losing it,” the statement said.
X and other social media platforms lit up with posts from users who said they had canceled their subscriptions to The Post.
Lewis’ announcement came days after news broke that the Los Angeles Times would not endorse Trump or 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 either candidate. (NBC News has not independently verified that report.)
In response, Mariel Garza, the editorial editor of the Los Angeles Times, resigned Wednesday. In an interview with the Columbia Journalism ReviewGarza said in part: “I am resigning because I want to make it clear that I am not OK 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.
The Washington Post is one of the most storied publications in the nation. The newspaper led the way on coverage of the Watergate scandal and won a Pulitzer Prize for public service for coverage of the Jan. 6 riot at the US Capitol.
The Post endorsed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016 and President Joe Biden in 2020. In the 2016 opinion piecethe editorial board called Trump a “bigoted, ignorant, deceitful, narcissistic, vengeful, petty, misogynistic, fiscally reckless, intellectually lazy, contemptuous of democracy and enamored of America’s enemies.”
“As president, he would pose a grave danger to the nation and the world,” the editorial board wrote.