The New York Times’ editorial board announced its official Democratic primary endorsement Sunday in an excruciating hour-long TV special about the process of choosing both the radical leftist Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and the more moderate liberal Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN).
In the special, the editorial board reveals that former Vice President Joe Biden failed to properly woo them, and didn’t even rank among the top four of the seven candidates who were interviewed.
As the Editorial Board notes in its quasi-endorsement of Klobuchar and Warren, Biden “maintains a lead in national polls, but that may be a measure of familiarity as much as voter intention. His central pitch to voters is that he can beat Donald Trump,” writes the Times’ editorial board. “But merely restoring the status quo will not get America where it needs to go as a society. It is time for him to pass the torch to a new generation of political leaders.”
But after the Times announced its dual endorsement, the Biden campaign rebuked the news organization with footage from the TV special that shows Biden taking a selfie with an ecstatic and happy security guard (arguably the only actual endorsement of the entire special).
In the video, the security guard gives Biden a glowing review, admitting that she “loves him” and is her “favorite.” Biden then asks for her name, and then they take a selfie together.
“We got the endorsement that actually equals votes,” says Greg Schultz, the campaign manager for the former vice president, who tweeted the video.
We got the endorsement that actually equals votes! https://t.co/jLAfFZ0MuX
— Greg Schultz 🥁 (@schultzohio) January 20, 2020
As the Washington Examiner has noted, the interaction between Biden and the security guard “has been watched more than 180,000 times on Twitter as of Monday afternoon, more than the videos made for Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar combined.”
Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin, who is a self-described conservative but has distanced herself from the Republican Party, also hammered at the news organization for its absolutely detached editorial endorsement process.
In providing this self-parody, the endorsement raises a serious issue about the media’s perception of Democratic voters. Of Joe Biden, it declared, “Mr. Biden maintains a lead in national polls, but that may be a measure of familiarity as much as voter intention.” It is hard to imagine anything more contemptuous of voters, African American voters specifically, who are deeply attached to Barack Obama’s vice president.
We are to believe Biden’s supporters (including, in some polls, the majority of African American voters in the primary electorate), simply do not know better? They do not mean to support Biden, the theory goes. They just remember the name.
However, it’s important to note that Rubin made a very similar argument against Trump supporters last year when she suggested that his supporters are not college “educated,” according to Fox News.
According to the Times, the editorial board chose to endorse two candidates because “the radical and the realist models” that each candidate offers “warrant serious consideration. If there were ever a time to be open to new ideas, it is now. If there were ever a time to seek stability, now is it.”