On Media Blog Archives Select Date… December, 2015 November, 2015 October, 2015 September, 2015 August, 2015 July, 2015 June, 2015 May, 2015 April, 2015 March, 2015 February, 2015 January, 2015

Utah’s Salt Lake Tribune endorses Hillary Clinton

The Salt Lake Tribune, the largest circulated daily paper in Salt Lake City, endorsed Hillary Clinton for president Wednesday.

“It’s time to get serious. It has been amusing, to a degree, to watch the circus that was the Republican primary process struggle and fuss and finally produce such a disappointment to be its presidential nominee,” the editorial read. “But now the ballots have been printed and are arriving in Utah mailboxes. It is time to make a reasonable, considerate, realistic vote for president of the United States.”

The editorial was critical of Clinton’s secrecy, but cited her history standing up “for religious freedom around the world” and her “equitable” tax policy as among the reasons for the endorsement.

“There is certainly not a perfect choice but, at this point, the only candidate who comes close to being qualified and fit for the post is Hillary Clinton,” the editorial wrote. “She has shown that she is tough, yet able and willing to reach out to politicians to her left and her right in order to get things done.”

The editorial also condemned Republican nominee Donald Trump for running a campaign “based on divisive, bigoted and insulting rhetoric.”

“Utah Republicans were perceptive enough to reject Trump in their March presidential caucus voting,” the editorialsaid. “Were they to support Clinton now, even by the narrowest of pluralities, it would send a strong message to the Republican Party to turn their backs on Trumpism and to work with Clinton where they can, rather than devote themselves to blocking her every move.”

The Tribune endorsed Barack Obama in both 2008 and 2012.

Legislators and religious leaders in Utah have over the past week sought to distance themselves from Donald Trump following the publication of a 2005 video recording of him making vulgar and aggressive comments about groping and kissing women without permission. The Deseret News, which is owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, called for Trump to resign his candidacy in an editorial published over the weekend.

A poll of likely Utah voters out Wednesday had Trump and Clinton tied at 26 percent, a sharp change from earlier polling that put Trump out ahead. Independent conservative candidate Evan McMullin polled at 24 percent.

