The editorial board of The Wall Street Journal, the American flagship of Rupert Murdoch’s journalistic empire, denounced President Trump on Thursday for inciting a crowd of his supporters to invade the United States Capitol and encouraged Trump to resign. to avoid a second impeachment by the Democratic-controlled House.
In an unsigned article entitled “Donald Trump’s Final Days, “The Journal’s editorial page – a thermometer of the conservative establishment – criticized the president for” an attack on the constitutional process of transferring power after an election “and said that” this week probably ended him as a serious political figure . ”He described his behavior as” impeachable “.
“If Mr. Trump wants to avoid a second impeachment, his best way would be to take personal responsibility and resign,” wrote the newspaper, concluding: “It is better for everyone, including himself, if he leaves in silence”
The Journal’s editorial page, led by editor Paul A. Gigot, has criticized Trump in the past, sometimes severely. But his last salvo was an impressive repudiation of the president by a news agency controlled by Murdoch, whose Fox News cable network is home to several of Trump’s most loyal and long-standing advocates of the media.
Murdoch’s publicists previously indicated that he did not expect Trump to win re-election, and another Murdoch publication, The New York Post, touted the victory of President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr., even when Trump refused to accept the results.
The Post, in its own unsigned editorial on Thursday, did not go so far as to argue that Trump should leave the White House prematurely, rather than urging his advisers “to stay and stop the madmen”. But given Murdoch’s influence on the political views of his newspapers, the rude words from The Journal on Thursday certainly hurt Trump, who previously longed for the tycoon’s approval.
The president received a kind treatment on Fox News on Wednesday night, when primetime hosts like Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham criticized the day’s violence on Capitol Hill, but refrained from placing the blame on Trump.
A Murdoch representative did not respond on Thursday to an inquiry for comment.
The Journal’s editorial page found common ground with Trump throughout his presidency, and several of his prominent writers resigned in protest for what they saw as a betrayal of the page’s conservative values. (A defector, Bret Stephens, is now an opinion columnist for The New York Times.)
The page has also routinely pinned liberals. Last month, there was an outcry after The Journal published an opinion article arguing that Biden’s wife, Jill Biden, should remove the honorary title “Dr.” of her name because she has a doctorate in education, not a medical degree.
Even in his punishment of Trump, to be published in Friday’s print edition, Gigot and his team had time to criticize the Democrats for impeaching the president last year because of what the newspaper considered merely “unjust” offenses, saying the part “abused the process”.
But this week’s events in Washington, the newspaper wrote, showed that Trump “refused to accept democracy’s basic bargain, which is to accept the outcome, win or lose.”
“The best case for impeachment is not to punish Mr. Trump,” wrote the newspaper. “It is to send a message to future presidents that Congress will protect itself from populists of all ideological hues willing to incite a crowd.