“Surprising and disappointing”: Woodward and Bernstein respond to Bezos blocking WaPo endorsement

Two of the most famed reporters to ever work for the Washington Post are sounding off on owner Jeff Bezos’ decision to squash any presidential endorsement from the paper.

Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the duo that broke the Watergate scandal for the paper and brought down the presidency of Richard Nixon, called Bezos’ move “surprising and disappointing” in a joint statement. 

“We respect the traditional independence of the editorial page, but this decision 11 days out from the 2024 presidential election ignores the Washington Post’s own overwhelming reportorial evidence on the threat Donald Trump poses to democracy,” they shared. “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 statement comes after the paper broke with tradition and declined to endorse either candidate in the upcoming presidential election. The eleventh-hour move — which reportedly came at the direction of owner Jeff Bezos after an endorsement of Harris had already been written — rankled the rank-and-file of the paper and led to a high-profile resignation. 

Opinion columnists at the Post responded to the move in a joint column on Friday evening, calling the move a “terrible mistake.”

“It represents an abandonment of the fundamental editorial convictions of the newspaper that we love. This is a moment for the institution to be making clear its commitment to democratic values, the rule of law and international alliances, and the threat that Donald Trump poses to them — the precise points The Post made in endorsing Trump’s opponents in 2016 and 2020,” the group of 17 opinion columnists wrote. “An independent newspaper might someday choose to back away from making presidential endorsements. But this isn’t the right moment.”