The Economist newspaper has formally endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden. The London-based current affairs publication released its endorsement on its website on Thursday.
The op-ed backing Biden will appear in The Economist's print edition on Friday, according to a press release. The newspaper, which is printed in magazine format, is considered influential and supports economic liberalism and free markets.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton won their endorsement in 2016 and The Economist has endorsed nine presidential candidates since backing Republican nominee Ronald Reagan in 1980. He went on to win the White House.
The op-ed describes Biden as "a good man who would restore steadiness and civility to the White House. He would thus begin the long, difficult task of putting a fractured country back together again."
However, The Economist notes "Joe Biden is not a miracle cure for what ails America."
They point to Biden's credentials as a centrist as part of their reasoning for supporting him. The newspaper has been associated with "radical centrism" in the past.
"Much of what the left wing of the Democratic Party disliked about him in the primaries—that he is a centrist, an institutionalist, a consensus-builder—makes him an anti-Trump equipped to repair some of the damage of the past four years," they write.
"A resounding Democratic victory would also benefit the Republicans. That is because a close contest would tempt them into divisive, racially polarizing tactics, a dead end in a country that is growing more diverse.
"As anti-Trump Republicans argue, Trumpism is morally bankrupt. Their party needs a renaissance. Mr Trump must be soundly rejected."
"He has never sought to represent the majority of Americans who did not vote for him," The Economist goes on. "Faced by an outpouring of peaceful protest after the killing of George Floyd, his instinct was not to heal, but to depict it as an orgy of looting and left-wing violence—part of a pattern of stoking racial tension."
"In this election America faces a fateful choice," the newspaper goes on. "At stake is the nature of its democracy. One path leads to a fractious, personalized rule, dominated by a head of state who scorns decency and truth. The other leads to something better—something truer to what this newspaper sees as the values that originally made America an inspiration around the world."
