USA TODAY & OTHER NEWSPAPERS COME OUT AGAINST TRUMP

…The way USA TODAY looks at Donald Trump

 

USA Today’s scathing critique of the GOP nominee read more like an “anti-endorsement!

 

When USA Today came out with the following editorial statement, I almost fell out of my chair.

 

Here’s the exact statement:

 

“From the day he declared his candidacy 15 months ago through this week’s first presidential debate, Donald Trump has demonstrated repeatedly that he lacks the temperament, knowledge, steadiness and honesty that America needs from its presidents,” the board wrote. “Whether through indifference or ignorance, Trump has betrayed fundamental commitments made by all presidents since the end of World War II.”

 

The editorial then called him: “erratic,” “ill-equipped to be commander in chief” and “a serial liar.”

 

No, they didn’t endorse Hillary Clinton or any other candidate.  In fact, in its 34 years of existence, USA Today has had a “no-endorsement policy”. In this historic first, that breaks that 34 years of tradition, the board decided this election season to revisit its no-endorsement policy.  They then threw it out, and penned their scathing critique of the GOP nominee that read more like an “anti-endorsement”.

 

The USA Today board was unanimous in its repudiation of Trump, it tried, but could not reach consensus on a Clinton endorsement. Some, the board wrote, “look at her command of the issues, resilience and long record of public service — as first lady, US senator and secretary of state — and believe she’d serve the nation ably as its president.”

 

But the real point was that they did write what most of us feel against Trump: They did write, “Trump is unfit for the presidency.”

 

Last week, the Arizona Republic editorial board endorsed Hillary Clinton.  That marks the first time it had backed a Democrat for president in its 126-year history.

 



 

The Dallas Morning News, the Cincinnati Enquirer and the Houston Chronicle, they all traditionally endorse conservative candidates.  But they have also backed Clinton. In fact, the Enquirer had supported only Republicans for president, for nearly a century. The Dallas Morning News hadn’t backed a Democrat for the White House since before World War II.

 

And on Thursday, the Detroit News abandoned Republicans for the first time in 143 years by endorsing the Libertarian candidate, Gary Johnson.  As it happens, Johnson, who wasn’t able to qualify for the general election debates, is still being widely mocked for his unfamiliarity with the Syrian city of Aleppo, and for going blank on being able to name a single world leader, even with all this, he has collected more newspaper endorsements than Donald Trump.

 

The USA Today board wrote it was “not unmindful” of the issues Trump’s campaign has raised this election cycle, including the rise of terrorist group the Islamic State, the plight of the working class, disappearing jobs, the Supreme Court, “excessive political correctness” and urban unrest and street violence.

 

But it did mark off, mercilessly, in boldface, its objections to Trump:

He is erratic.

He is ill-equipped to be commander in chief.

He traffics in prejudice.

His business career is checkered.

He isn’t leveling with the American people.

He speaks recklessly.

He has coarsened the national dialogue.

He’s a serial liar.

 

Now, I give USA Today credit that as they usually do, they allowed for Trump’s running mate, Indiana Governor Mike Pence to pen a counter side-bar article, writing in support of his running mate, Donald Trump. 

 

Here is some of what Pence wrote about “The Donald”:

 

Pence defended the GOP nominee’s oratorical style, writing that Trump’s campaign reminds him of the 1980 candidacy of Ronald Reagan, “a leader whom we now regard as one of our nation’s greatest presidents.  Reagan was regarded at first by the political establishment as little more than a cowboy or a celebrity who entered politics late in life.  He even made some Republicans uneasy,” Pence wrote. “But, along the way, “Americans from all walks of life flocked to a man who was so clearly unbound by Washington niceties and political correctness.”

 

 



 

USA Today’s readers are spread across the country and are highly diverse.  Their board reasoned in a separate story, explaining its decision to break from tradition.

 

In most elections, it wrote, the politically, ideologically and demographically diverse board “couldn’t agree on any endorsement.”  But this year was different.

 

“In breaking with tradition this year, we asked ourselves what Al Neuharth, who founded USA TODAY in 1982, would have done.”

 

Like Donald Trump, Neuharth had a very big ego.  Trump’s best-known book is “The Art of the Deal”; Neuharth’s was “Confessions of an S.O.B.”  But Neuharth, who died in 2013, was a champion of diversity, a defender of First Amendment freedoms and an optimist about America’s future. In a 2012 column, he described Donald Trump as “a clown who loves doing or saying things to get attention, no matter how ridiculous.”

 

The USA Today Board all then agreed that it, “sounded like Al was on to something”.  I agree.

 

Copyright G.Ater  2016