The daughter of the Los Angeles Times‘s owner explained that the paper’s non-endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris was based on the Biden-Harris administration’s stance on the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
Nika Soon-Shiong, 31, daughter of Patrick Soon-Shiong, the owner of the Los Angeles Times, explained to the New York Times that her family made a “joint decision” to not endorse either Harris or former President Donald Trump.
“Our family made the joint decision not to endorse a presidential candidate,” Nika Soon-Shiong told the outlet. “This was the first and only time I have been involved in the process. As a citizen of a country openly financing genocide, and as a family that experienced South African Apartheid, the endorsement was an opportunity to repudiate justifications for the widespread targeting of journalists and ongoing war on children.”
In response to his daughter’s statement, a spokeswoman for Patrick Soon-Shiong told the outlet that the owner’s daughter “speaks in her own personal capacity,” adding that she did “not have any role” with the paper and did not “participate in any decision or discussion with the editorial board.”
The Times, which is Harris’s hometown newspaper, announced that it would not be endorsing Harris or Trump in the presidential election. The paper has previously endorsed President Joe Biden, former President Barack Obama, and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Days after the Times‘s non-endorsement of Harris, the Washington Post announced that it would also not be endorsing a presidential candidate in the election.
William Lewis, who serves as a publisher and chief executive officer for the Post, wrote in an opinion piece that the newspaper was “returning” to its “roots of not endorsing presidential candidates.”
The Washington Post will not be making an endorsement of a presidential candidate in this election. Nor in any future presidential election. We are returning to our roots of not endorsing presidential candidates.
The lack of endorsements from the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post comes as the Teamsters Union previously declined to endorse a candidate in the election, despite polling that showed almost 60 percent of the union’s members supported Trump, while 34 percent supported Harris.
