AP Photo/Lauren Victoria Burke
Former President Donald Trump spoke at a rally in North Carolina on Wednesday and claimed that U.S. newspapers that decided not to endorse in the presidential race were actually endorsing him.
The LA Times and Washington Post, which both have billionaire owners, made headlines last week for refusing to make an endorsement, despite reportedly being ready to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris.
“The Washington Post and Los Angeles Times and all these papers they are not endorsing anybody. You know what they’re really saying? Because they only endorse Democrats. They’re saying this Democrat is no good,” Trump told a cheering crowd.
“They’re no good. And they think I’m doing a great job. They just don’t want to say it. Washington– and USA Today. Congratulations. I just heard USA Today has not endorsed. They said we’re not going to endorse. That means that they think she’s no good,” concluded Trump.
In both the case of the LA Times and Washington Post, their respective owners, Patrick Soon-Shiong and Jeff Bezos, stepped in to stop their editorial boards from endorsing Harris, which led to resignations at both publications.
The AP’s David Bauder also noted this week that newspapers have started to move away from endorsements as part of a larger trend rooted in the industry contracting. “The number of newspapers endorsing a candidate for president has dwindled with the industry’s financial troubles the past two decades, in part because owners reason that it makes no sense to alienate some subscribers by taking a clear stand in a politically polarizing time,” Bauder wrote.
The Washington Post has reportedly lost some 250,000 subscribers who were angered by the paper’s non-endorsement amid accusations that Bezos feared retribution from Trump.
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