USA Today, the first national newspaper founded in in 1982, issued its first presidential endorsement Tuesday, urging voters to elect Joe Biden to become the 46th President of the United States in an editorial titled, “Elect Joe Biden. Reject Donald Trump.”
Newspapers from the Philadelphia Inquirer, The Los Angeles Times, The Orlando Sentinel, The Houston Chronicle, The Seattle Times, the Washington Post and the Chicago Tribune are among the 62 daily newspapers endorsing Biden to date. The New York Times ran a 12-page broadsheet endorsement of Biden this weekend.
Only two daily papers, the Las Vegas Review-Journal, owned by republican mega-donor Sheldon Adelson, and the Santa Barbara News-Press have endorsed Trump.
Four years ago, the USA Today Editorial Board stopped short of endorsing Hillary Clinton, instead urging voters to reject Donald Trump. This year, it took the unprecedented step of openly endorsing a presidential candidate.
“This year, the Editorial Board unanimously supports the election of Joe Biden, who offers a shaken nation a harbor of calm and competence,” the USA Today board wrote.
The Board then went on to outline four aspects of the candidates that, they argue, makes Biden the clear choice: crisis management; character and core values; working-class roots; and the extraordinary situation in US history. Trump has failed, they argue, in each of these issues.