USA Today Says To Elect Joe Biden In First-Ever Presidential Endorsement
USA Today’s editorial board delivered a powerful endorsement of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, telling readers they “unanimously” support him as he “offers a shaken nation a harbor of calm and competence.”
This is the first time the publication has endorsed a specific presidential candidate.
In 2016, the board urged people to not vote for Donald Trump, calling him “unfit for office because he lacked the ‘temperament, knowledge, steadiness and honesty that America needs from its presidents’.” However, it did not directly endorse Hillary Clinton.
This year, editorial board members said they’ve been driven to take a stand as it is “not a normal election” and are these not “normal times.”
“This year, character, competence and credibility are on the ballot. Given Trump’s refusal to guarantee a peaceful transfer of power if he loses, so, too, is the future of America’s democracy,” they wrote, adding that they stand for core values like “truth, accountability, civility in public discourse, opposition to racism, common-ground solutions to the nation’s problems, and steadfast support for First Amendment rights.”
They stressed that these values “aren’t partisan issues, or at least they shouldn’t be.”
“Donald Trump has trampled each of these principles, making more than 20,000 false or misleading statements, ducking responsibility for his actions, spewing streams of invective at his critics, trafficking in racial fearmongering, governing more as the leader of the red states than of the United States, and relentlessly attacking the free press,” they wrote. “Everything about Biden’s nearly half-century political career suggests he would do a far better job of respecting these values.”
