With less than a week to go before the 2016 presidential election, Hillary Clinton continues to rack up endorsements, both expected and otherwise, while Donald Trump has received the backing of a group the Republican nominee’s campaign had been trying to distance him from.
The Daily News, a staunchly anti-Trump New York tabloid, officially endorsed Clinton on Wednesday with a front page declaring, “Damn Right, We’re With Her.”
“Clinton would be a transformative leader for the good, far beyond making history as the first female president,” the newspaper said in a lengthy editorial. “Donald Trump would lead a nation divided against itself, with catastrophic consequences at home and abroad. Lost in a campaign distorted by Trump’s ego-driven demagoguery is the indisputable truth that Clinton’s instincts, skills and programs are an excellent match for the challenges of a uniquely frightening American moment.”
Earlier this month, the Daily News published a blistering, 7,900-word editorial — the longest in its 97-year history — calling on America to “Bury Trump in a Landslide.”
“Trump’s reckless willingness to damage trust in the electoral process — in order to save face and hold leadership of the paranoid wing of U.S. politics — is the most pressing reason why voters must defeat him in a landslide,” the paper wrote. “Herewith, we fervently pray, is the political obituary of Donald Trump and all that he stands for.”
Over on the opposite coast, Clinton received an endorsement from Variety — the first time the entertainment industry magazine has endorsed a presidential candidate in its 111-year history.
“We didn’t want to sit on the sidelines and come down on the wrong side of history,” Variety said. “We believe that Clinton is not only the best candidate for the job, but the only candidate. As many endorsements have noted, she has the experience and temperament necessary to make a truly effective president. In fact, it’s hard to think of any presidential candidate with the depth of knowledge and public-service record she has.”
The former secretary of state “has spent her entire life as a social-justice activist, fighting for the rights of women, children, families, the disabled, farmers, veterans, and the LGBTQ community,” Variety continued. “She has taken on such crucial issues as climate change, racial injustice, and the epidemic of gun violence. She’s not ‘nasty’ — she’s tough and unafraid to smash barriers, whether it was negotiating strict sanctions against Iran, or brokering a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. She’s a global diplomat who has traveled extensively to forge ties with foreign leaders.”
Trump, on the other hand, “has a long history of disrespect for and objectification of women,” Variety argued, pointing to the more than dozen women who have gone public with claims that he sexually harassed them.
“We are proud to endorse Hillary Clinton as president,” the magazine added, “and put an end to a prolonged election circus dominated by an egomaniacal ringmaster.”
Clinton even picked up a tacit endorsement from a fellow candidate in the 2016 race.
Bill Weld, the Libertarian vice presidential nominee, told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow on Tuesday night that he’s with her, at least in spirit.
“I’m here vouching for Mrs. Clinton, and I think it’s high time somebody did,” the former Republican Massachusetts governor said. “And I’m doing it based on my personal experience with her, and I think she deserves to have people vouch for her other than members of the Democratic National Committee. So, I’m here to do that.”
Weld, who is Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson’s running mate, admitted the already slim chances of a Johnson-Weld administration were dashed when they did not qualify to participate in the presidential and vice presidential debates.
“I fear for the country if Mr. Trump should be elected,” Weld said. “I think it’s a candidacy without any parallel that I can recall. It’s content-free and very much given to stirring up envy and resentment and even hatred. And I think it would be a threat to the conduct of our foreign policy and our position in the world at large.”
Meanwhile, Trump has received the backing of the Crusader, the Arkansas-based “voice of the white resistance” and a newspaper affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan.
The Trump campaign quickly condemned the paper’s support. “Mr. Trump and the campaign denounces hate in any form,” it said in a statement Tuesday evening. “This publication is repulsive and their views do not represent the tens of millions of Americans who are uniting behind our campaign.”
During the Republican primary, Trump initially refused to explicitly disavow the support he received from David Duke, a former KKK grand wizard. (He eventually did.)
And both Trump and his son Donald Trump Jr. have come under fire for sharing and retweeting imagery associated with the white nationalist movement.
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