Washington Post endorses Biden for president

The Washington Post endorsed Joe Biden for US president on Monday, calling the veteran Democrat a leader of “decency, honour and competence” who stands in stark contrast to incumbent Donald Trump.

The leading paper in the nation’s capital joins other recent notable Biden endorsements, including Pennsylvania’s Republican ex-governor Tom Ridge, senator John McCain’s widow and the actor Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.

Many Americans might be willing to vote for nearly anyone “in order to expel the worst president of modern times,” the Post’s editorial board wrote, citing Trump’s bungled coronavirus pandemic response and attacks on democratic norms.

“Fortunately, to oust President Trump in 2020, voters do not have to lower their standards.” Former vice president Biden, they said, “is exceptionally well-qualified, by character and experience, to meet the daunting challenges that the nation will face over the coming four years.” The Post has been no friend to Republican Trump, who has repeatedly denounced the newspaper and its rivals as “fake news.”

The daily has savaged Trump policy and launched a Fact Checker’s database identifying 20,000 false or misleading Trump statements, and its editorial board last year declared there was “more than enough proof” to impeach him.

While Trump has done “damage” to American democracy, the board said on Monday, a deeply empathetic and experienced Biden “would restore decency, honor and competence to America’s government.” The endorsement comes one day before Biden and Trump square off in Ohio in their first of three presidential debates.

Pennsylvania’s Ridge, who after the 9/11 attacks became the nation’s first homeland security chief, announced Sunday he will be voting for a Democratic presidential candidate for the first time. “I’ve never thought that loud, obnoxious, and simpleminded solutions to complex problems are the kind of qualities we want in a president,” Ridge wrote in the Philadelphia Inquirer. Cindy McCain, widow of the 2008 Republican nominee, announced her endorsement of Biden last week, saying “my husband John lived by a code: country first.”

Johnson, a Hollywood A-lister and former champion wrestler, released a video showing him telling Biden and his running mate, Senator Kamala Harris, that he was backing their campaign.