With less than 10 days to go until Election Day, the race to the White House is becoming increasingly unpredictable with many unexpected “turnarounds” at the last minute.
The race is heating up with almost unprecedented moves from the parties involved: traditional media turning their backs on Ms. Harris, or Republicans constantly criticizing Mr. Trump.
Two major newspapers declare neutrality
On October 25, the Washington Post announced for the first time in 36 years that they would remain neutral, not supporting either Democratic candidate Kamala Harris or Republican candidate Donald Trump.
According to AFP, over the past four decades, the Washington Post’s editorial board has supported many candidates for the US presidency, all of whom are Democrats.
Most polls show that the results are too close to determine a certain victory for any candidate. As a result, the Washington Post’s move was strongly condemned by readers and even the newspaper’s own editors.
By the morning of October 26, 17 Washington Post commentators had signed an editorial calling the decision “a terrible mistake” at a time “when a candidate is supporting views that directly threaten press freedom and the values of the Constitution”.
US election: many last-minute ‘U-turns’ –
US presidential election: An unpredictable race
Some sources revealed that the owner of the Washington Post, billionaire Jeff Bezos, had decided that the newspaper would not support any candidate. However, there were also sources who denied this information.
Two days before the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times (LA Times) also announced that it would not support any candidate. And the decision was made at the direct direction of the newspaper’s owner, billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong.
The New York Times reported that Soon-Shiong did not offer any internal or public explanation for the move and only informed the editorial board that the LA Times would not be making any recommendations in the presidential race this year.
Meanwhile, the newspaper’s editorial board views Ms. Harris, a native of California and a resident of Los Angeles, as an important bulwark in defending democratic institutions against Mr. Trump.
Several LA Times editors and staffers have also resigned in protest of the decision.
Speaking to Spectrum, Mr. Soon-Shiong affirmed that he is an independent voter. When asked about the political motive behind the LA Times’ decision not to endorse any candidate, the billionaire said he wanted the newspaper to be able to represent all voices.
Questioning the motives of the LA Times owner, some senior editors at the paper suggested that Soon-Shiong has been critical of the Biden administration and boasted about having dinner with Trump when the former president was elected in 2016.
These people speculated that Soon-Shiong was “betting” on many issues that depended on the election outcome, as he also had many jobs awaiting approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
In the case of the Washington Post, many commentators said that billionaire Bezos wanted to avoid “clashing” with Mr. Trump.
When Mr. Trump was in the White House, there were many tensions between the US president and billionaire Bezos. In 2019, Amazon claimed in a lawsuit that it was denied a $ 10 billion US defense contract because of “escalating and public pressure” from the president.
The US Department of Defense later awarded the contract to Microsoft.
Republicans “turn the wheel”
Meanwhile, for Mr. Trump, many Republican Party members also “turned the wheel” to support Ms. Harris with the usual reasons that the former president is “divisive” or “the Constitution needs to be protected”.
This means they turned their backs on Mr. Trump, citing the reason that the former president would not protect the Constitution.
