Nearly a third of Washington Post's editorial board stepping down
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The Washington Post office in Washington, DC, on June 27. Photo: Ting Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Three of the Washington Post's 10-person editorial board have announced they're stepping down after owner Jeff Bezos blocked the endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris, the newspaper confirmed on Monday.
The big picture: The paper sparked an outcry after it announced last week it would break from a decades-long tradition of endorsing presidential candidates.
- The decision reportedly triggered a "deluge" of messages from readers about plans to cancel their subscriptions.
Zoom in: The board members stepping down include David Hoffman, who has been at the paper for more than four decades, Molly Roberts and Mili Mitra, who is also the Washington Posts director of audience for the opinions section.
- All three said they intend to remain at the newspaper in other roles, according to the outlet.
Zoom out: At least 21 opinion section columnists, including Hoffman and Roberts signed onto a statement saying their employer's "refusal to endorse a presidential candidate is a mistake."
- Editor at large Robert Kagan also resigned in protest.
What they're saying: Hoffman told Axios in an email Monday evening that while he believes it's "entirely appropriate for an owner to make the decision" not to endorse a candidate, "the timing was very troubling."
- The decision "should have been made months ago, not right before the most consequential election of our lifetime," he said.
- In Hoffman's letter to Washington Post opinion editor David Shipley, he said he believes "we face a very real threat of autocracy in the candidacy of Donald Trump. ... I stand against silence in the face of dictatorship.
Roberts wrote on X earlier Monday that she's stepping down "because the imperative to endorse Kamala Harris over Donald Trump is about as morally clear as it gets."
- Trump "is not yet a dictator," Roberts, who writes columns on technology and society, said. "But the quieter we are, the closer he comes — because dictators don't have to order the press to publish cooperatively if it wishes to go on publishing at all."
- Mitra did not immediately respond to Axios' request for comment in the evening and the Washington Post declined to comment.
Go deeper: WaPo trends on WaPo after presidential endorsement news
