Washington Post Declines To Make Presidential Endorsement For First Time In Decades

The Washington Post’s editorial page will not make a presidential endorsement for the first time in decades and will decline to endorse any candidate going forward, controversial publisher and CEO William Lewis announced Friday.
The decision came after editorial writers had already drafted an endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris, according to The Washington Post Guild.
In a note to readers, Lewis said the paper would return to its “roots” by declining to offer an endorsement of either Harris or former President Donald Trump.
“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,” Lewis wrote.
The Trump campaign indeed took the news well, sending an emailed statement titled, “Another Big Fat L For Kamala Harris.”
Lewis went on: “Our job at The Washington Post is to provide through the newsroom nonpartisan news for all Americans, and thought-provoking, reported views from our opinion team to help our readers make up their own minds.”
Staffers were told of the decision in a “tense” morning meeting, according to NPR, which noted the reaction was “uniformly negative” and “outraged.”
A statement from Post Guild leadership on the Washington Post’s decision to not endorse a presidential candidate pic.twitter.com/fYU7hkr79K
Opinion columnist Robert Kagan, who warned about Trump’s fascist leanings back in 2016, has reportedly quit in response.
Retired Washington Post Executive Editor Marty Baron slammed the decision on social media.
“This is cowardice, with democracy as its casualty,” Baron wrote. “@RealDonaldTrump will see this as an invitation to further intimidate owner @JeffBezos (and others). Disturbing spinelessness at an institution famed for courage.”
Billionaire Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos bought The Washington Post in 2013. Amazon holds contracts with the government worth billions.
A retired Washington Post metro reporter of nearly four decades, Robert McCartney, wrote on social media that there is “speculation in [the] newsroom that owner Jeff Bezos may want to avoid risk of endangering Amazon’s government contracts if Trump wins.” (HuffPost reached out to the company for comment but did not receive an immediate response.)
The Washington Post Guild shared the same concern in a statement, pointing out that the announcement came from Lewis and not the paper’s editorial board, which “makes us concerned that management interfered with the work of our members in Editorial.”
The statement continued, “According to our own reporters and Guild members, an endorsement for Harris was already drafted, and the decision not to publish was made by the Post’s owner, Jeff Bezos.”
Columnist Karen Attiah wrote that “today has been an absolute stab in the back.”
“What an insult to those of us who have literally put our careers and lives on the line, to call out threats to human rights and democracy,” she said. Attiah was editor to Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi dissident and Post columnist who was dismembered for voicing his opinions in 2018.
In his note to readers, Lewis cited how The Washington Post did not offer presidential endorsements through much of the 20th century, picking them up again consistently with its 1992 Bill Clinton endorsement. The paper has endorsed Democrats since.
Earlier in the week, a decision by the Los Angeles Times to decline to endorse Trump or Harris led to the resignation of Editorials Editor Mariel Garza and similar speculation that the paper’s billionaire owner — who was once reportedly angling for a position in the Trump administration — wanted to placate Trump.
Lewis attracted criticism earlier this year for his ties to shady British tabloid reporting practices, including the infamous hacking scandal that targeted British royalty and celebrities.
After he recruited former Daily Telegraph editor Robert Winnett to oversee the Washington Post’s news operations, Winnett was reported to have been involved with an effort to use deception to obtain former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair’s unpublished memoir. Winnett later resigned.
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Lewis’ reorganization of the Post’s newsroom also prompted the resignation of Executive Editor Sally Buzbee this summer.
While Lewis’ own job appeared imperiled amid the wave of instability at one of the nation’s largest newspapers, he has held on to his post so far.