The Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Washington, came out with its presidential endorsement on Sunday. It started by calling President Trump “a bully and a bigot.”
It wrote, “He is symptomatic of a widening partisan divide in the country.” It also wrote, “The list of Trump’s offenses is long. He panders to racists and prevents sensible immigration reform in a nation built on immigrant labor and intellect. He tweets conspiracy theories. He’s cavalier about COVID-19 and has led poorly through the pandemic. He seeks to dismantle the Affordable Care Act without proposing a replacement. He denies climate change.”
So who is The Spokesman-Review endorsing for president? Donald Trump.
Despite all its criticisms of Trump, publisher William Stacy Cowles, the one who selected the endorsement, wrote, “We recommend voting for him anyway because the policies that Joe Biden and his progressive supporters would impose on the nation would be worse.”
The publisher wrote that after four years of Trump, “the nation is still standing. Indeed, in many ways it flourished until the pandemic upended everything.”
The endorsement went on to say, “This is an election that pits a wretched human being whose policies and instincts for helping America thrive are generally correct against a doddering, doting uncle who would hand out gifts the nation can’t afford in order to win people’s love. Given that choice, economic policy and principle should prevail. Vote for Donald Trump.”
Meanwhile, the conservative-leaning editorial board of the New Hampshire Union Leader is endorsing Joe Biden for president, making it the first time it has endorsed a Democrat in more than 100 years.
The editorial board wrote, “Joe Biden may not be the president we want, but in 2020 he is the president we desperately need. He will be a president to bring people together and right the ship of state.”
The board also wrote, “President Trump is not always 100 percent wrong, but he is 100 percent wrong for America.”
This piece originally appeared in The Poynter Report, our daily newsletter for everyone who cares about the media. Subscribe to The Poynter Report here.
Correction: Endorsements at The Spokesman-Review are made solely by the publisher.
