In a move that’s left Vice President Kamala Harris visibly frustrated, several major newspapers have declined to endorse anyone for president in the final leg of the 2024 campaign.
During a Tuesday morning interview on The Breakfast Club, Harris aired her disappointment, lamenting that outlets like The LA Times and The Washington Post won’t throw their support behind her. Charlamagne Tha God prompted the response, asking Harris how she felt about the lack of endorsements, to which she responded with a lot of word salad and some attempt to tie it all back to—who else?—Donald Trump.
“You know, Charlamagne, it’s disappointing, no doubt,” she responded. “But the other piece of it is it gets back to my point about who is Donald Trump.”
“Because he is the one, right, who is up for election with me, and you know he, he, I think that some of your listeners, they know, and others may not, which is that, look, it’s billionaires in Donald Trump’s clubs,” she continued.
Kamala on the refusal of many of the nation’s biggest media outlets to endorse her: “It gets back to my point about who is Donald Trump because he is the one, right, who is up for election with me.” pic.twitter.com/oYOvypPKja
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) October 29, 2024
According to Harris, the blame falls squarely on Trump, who, she vaguely suggested, is backed by billionaires and exclusive clubs. Somehow, in Harris’s world, the real story about The Washington Post ditching its endorsement tradition is all about Trump’s influence. Her comments, though, sound like a serious case of deflection. Let’s be honest—when one of the most left-leaning papers in the country won’t even endorse their own candidate, it might be time to do a little self-reflection instead of pointing fingers.
The LA Times, The Washington Post, and now USA Today have all taken a pass on the Harris-Walz ticket. The Post explained that they’re “returning to their roots” and stepping back from presidential endorsements entirely. USA Today stated they won’t be endorsing in any presidential or national races, ending a long-standing practice. It’s a move that sends a pretty loud message: if even legacy outlets that have leaned blue for years won’t back this ticket, maybe the candidate isn’t exactly inspiring confidence.
Jeff Bezos did not allow Washington Post to endorse Kamala Harris, CNBC reports. ‼️ pic.twitter.com/V3JoUYYt2e
— DramaAlert (@DramaAlert) October 25, 2024
And it’s not as though the media landscape is teeming with pro-Trump outlets. The mainstream press has traditionally been far more willing to endorse Democrats—especially someone like Harris, who ticks a lot of the boxes that today’s editorial boards typically love to champion. For her, the absence of endorsements has to sting. After all, she’s been the sitting VP for four years, and yet the biggest newspapers in the country aren’t convinced she’s the answer.
Trump’s team, of course, seized the moment. The Trump War Room tweeted a clip of Harris stumbling through her response, tying it back to Trump without actually explaining how he’s involved. The video quickly circulated, underscoring the oddity of her response and her reliance on Trump as a go-to scapegoat.
Meanwhile, the American public might just see this media shift as another sign that the Harris-Walz platform isn’t bringing much to the table. When newspapers that were practically expected to endorse her choose silence instead, it suggests that Harris’s “closing argument” isn’t closing the deal at all.
