Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the famed journalists whose reporting on the Watergate scandal for The Washington Post led to President Richard Nixon’s resignation, questioned their former publication’s “surprising and disappointing” decision to not endorse a candidate in the 2024 election.
“We respect the traditional independence of the editorial page, but this decision 11 days out from the 2024 presidential election ignores the Washington Post’s own overwhelming reportorial evidence on the threat Donald Trump poses to democracy,” they wrote in a statement shared by CNN’s Brian Stelter on Friday.
“Under Jeff Bezos’s ownership, the Washington Post’s news operation has used its abundant resources to rigorously investigate the danger and damage a second Trump presidency could cause to the future of American democracy and that makes this decision even more surprising and disappointing, especially this late in the electoral process.”
The Post had reportedly already drafted an endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris before its billionaire owner, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, ultimately killed it, according to the newspaper’s reporting on the decision.
The paper’s non-endorsement in this year’s presidential election, its first since 1988, sparked in-house condemnations along with backlash across the media world including from The Post’s former executive editor Marty Baron.
“This is cowardice, with democracy as its casualty. @realdonaldtrump will see this as an invitation to further intimidate owner @jeffbezos (and others). Disturbing spinelessness at an institution famed for courage,” he wrote on X.
Robert Kagan — The Post’s editor-at-large and former adviser to John McCain’s 2008 campaign who warned of an “increasingly inevitable” Trump dictatorship in a column published last year — also resigned in the wake of the decision, according to Semafor’s Max Tani.
The non-endorsement arrives after The Los Angeles Times’ billionaire owner Patrick Soon-Shiong blocked the newspaper’s editorial board from endorsing a candidate in the election, a move that’s sparked the resignations of at least three editorial board members.
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William Lewis, The Post’s controversial publisher and CEO, wrote to readers that the publication was returning to its “roots” Friday. The newspaper regularly began endorsing candidates beginning in 1976 with Jimmy Carter.
“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.
“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. 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 Washington Post Guild, in a statement Friday, slammed Lewis’ message and noted that the paper is “already seeing cancellations from once loyal readers.”
“This decision undercuts the work of our members at a time when we should be building our readers’ trust, not losing it,” the guild’s leadership wrote.