REPORT: Jeff Bezos Killed WaPo Endorsement of Harris

One of the week's biggest stories last week was that the Washington Post would sit out the presidential election rather than endorse Harris.

Fingers quickly pointed in the direction of Jeff Bezos, stating that he had killed the intention of staffers to throw its endorsement behind the Democrat candidate.

Jeff Did It

The Washington Post is one of the many holdings of Jeff Bezos, the billionaire founder of Amazon. It seemed imminent that the publication would endorse Kamala Harris in this election. There were even reports that several columns had been drafted to outline why the publication would be supporting Harris. Then came the reports that Bezos nixed the idea of endorsing anyone in the race.

Publisher Will Lewis, who was only recently hired by Bezos, announced that the publication would be sitting out the election. Not only that, Lewis announced that the paper would not be making endorsements in the future. Lewis stated, “The Washington Post will not be making an endorsement of a presidential candidate in this election. Nor in any future presidential election.”

Lewis continued, “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. 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.”

Editor at Large Quits

The moment that announcement was made, the left melted down. Former Clinton, Obama, and Biden official Susan Rice called the publication “chicken sh**” for not endorsing Harris. Then she demanded the staff take action against the paper for not endorsing Harris, and they appeared to listen to her and everyone else whining about the lack of endorsement.

Editor-at-Large Robert Kagan was among the first staffers to express outrage over the decision, then he resigned his position. Kagan also blistered Bezos, accusing him of quid pro quo with Trump. He stated, “Trump waited to make sure that Bezos did what he said he was going to do, and then met with the Blue Origin people. Which tells us that there was an actual deal made, meaning that Bezos communicated, or through his people, communicated directly with Trump, and they set up this quid pro quo.”

He later added, “This is what we have to look forward to. All Trump has to do is threaten the corporate chiefs who run these organizations with real financial loss, and they will bend the knee.”

Staff Outrage Leads to Mass Exodus

Kagan is far from the only “journalist” at the publication that will walk over this. According to a report on Semafor, many staffers are considering leaving the publication. Semafor’s Max Tani reported, “Several are contemplating what action to take, ranging from resigning, quitting the board, or a statement. ‘If you don’t have the balls to own a newspaper, don’t,’ one Post opinion employee tells me.”

WaPa is not alone in this, as the LA Times is facing the same pushback over the publication’s decision to support Harris over the administration’s support for Israel. Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, who owns the paper, blocked the paper from endorsing anyone. His daughter, Nika, explained, “Our family made the joint decision not to endorse a Presidential candidate.

“This was the first and only time I have been involved in the process. As a citizen of a country openly financing genocide, and as a family that experienced South African Apartheid, the endorsement was an opportunity to repudiate justifications for the widespread targeting of journalists and ongoing war on children.”

That led to Mariel Garza, the paper’s editorials editor, resigning, stating, “I am resigning because I want to make it clear that I am not okay with us being silent. In dangerous times, honest people need to stand up. This is how I’m standing up.”

I have just one comment to make on this. If journalists, who are supposed to be impartial and report the facts, are so upset that they resign over a candidate not being endorsed, are they not making my point that we now have state-run media in this country? I am a conservative, but as you guys know, I have no problem calling out Republicans, including Trump, if I think they are lying, failing, or deceiving the American people. It is truly sad that journalists in the mainstream media no longer have the integrity to do that.