Liz Cheney: Jeff Bezos ‘afraid’ to endorse Harris in Washington Post
Posted on 10/28/2024
Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) criticized Jeff Bezos after The Washington Post, which the billionaire owns, broke with decades of the newspaper’s history and decided not to make an endorsement in the 2024 presidential race.
Cheney said during an interview with David Remnick at the annual New Yorker festival on Saturday that Bezos was “afraid” to issue an endorsement for Vice President Harris.
““When you have Jeff Bezos apparently afraid to issue an endorsement for the only candidate in the race who’s a stable responsible adult because he fears Donald Trump, that tells you why we have to work so hard to make sure that Donald Trump isn’t elected,” she said. “And I think also, why we ought to not forget what has happened, forget who’s taken brave and courageous stands.”
Cheney also said she canceled her subscription to the Post.
Its publisher, William Lewis, announced Friday the outlet would no longer take stances in presidential elections, breaking 36 years of precedent. The Post, which backed President Biden in 2020 and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016, did endorse other candidates this cycle.
“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,” Lewis wrote. “That is inevitable. We don’t see it that way. We see it as consistent with the values The Post has always stood for.”
The Post later reported Bezos, who owns the publication, killed an endorsement its editorial board had drafted.
Former Washington Post journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein issued a statement condemning the publication’s decision on Friday.
“Under Jeff Bezos’s ownership, the Washington Post’s news operation has used its abundant resources to rigorously investigate the danger and damage a second Trump presidency could cause to the future of American democracy and that makes this decision even more surprising and disappointing, especially this late in the electoral process,” the journalists wrote in the statement.
A Washington Post spokesperson declined to comment on Cheney’s remarks.
Updated at 12:01 p.m. EDT
Cheney said during an interview with David Remnick at the annual New Yorker festival on Saturday that Bezos was “afraid” to issue an endorsement for Vice President Harris.
““When you have Jeff Bezos apparently afraid to issue an endorsement for the only candidate in the race who’s a stable responsible adult because he fears Donald Trump, that tells you why we have to work so hard to make sure that Donald Trump isn’t elected,” she said. “And I think also, why we ought to not forget what has happened, forget who’s taken brave and courageous stands.”
Cheney also said she canceled her subscription to the Post.
Its publisher, William Lewis, announced Friday the outlet would no longer take stances in presidential elections, breaking 36 years of precedent. The Post, which backed President Biden in 2020 and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016, did endorse other candidates this cycle.
“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,” Lewis wrote. “That is inevitable. We don’t see it that way. We see it as consistent with the values The Post has always stood for.”
The Post later reported Bezos, who owns the publication, killed an endorsement its editorial board had drafted.
Former Washington Post journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein issued a statement condemning the publication’s decision on Friday.
“Under Jeff Bezos’s ownership, the Washington Post’s news operation has used its abundant resources to rigorously investigate the danger and damage a second Trump presidency could cause to the future of American democracy and that makes this decision even more surprising and disappointing, especially this late in the electoral process,” the journalists wrote in the statement.
A Washington Post spokesperson declined to comment on Cheney’s remarks.
Updated at 12:01 p.m. EDT
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