Opinion

Our view: Our struggles with Trump candidacy

This newspaper has spent several months looking for reasons to endorse Republican Donald Trump for president of the United States.

The Daily News has, for many years, supported candidates that are conservative in their approach to government. Donald Trump embodies the conservative philosophy much more than Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Our biggest concern, and we know it to be the biggest concern among those supporting Trump, is the U.S. Supreme Court justices that will be appointed by the next president. Trump has indicated he will appoint judges in the mold of conservative Justice Antonin Scalia, who recently passed away. Clinton has indicated she will appoint justices that will swing the court majority to a more liberal philosophy, which raises concerns in religious communities and among Second Amendment supporters.

The problem is not the positions Donald Trump is putting forth as a platform; the problem is Donald Trump himself. Even his own party is disowning him more and more, particularly after the recent release of a video in which Trump is heard making sexually offensive comments about women. It would be one thing if this was a first offense. But Trump has demonstrated a pattern of such abuse and sexism toward women over the course of his career and campaign. Will more of these types of videos be released in the days leading up to the Nov. 8 election? It’s possible, based on past performance.

And his attitude toward women is just part of the problem. Trump also has come across as stereotypical and even racist in his treatment of various minorities, even though he claims his presidency will be “great” for them.

After the sexually offensive video was released, House Speaker Paul Ryan, a reluctant Trump supporter from the start, told congressional Republicans he would no longer campaign with Trump. He said he would focus instead on ensuring Clinton doesn’t get a “blank check” by striving to maintain Republican control of the United States Congress.

Ryan, in effect, is conceding the election to Clinton, and for good reason. Polls show Clinton with a fairly sizeable lead, in part because of the sexually offensive video and Trump’s response, which was to apologize and shrug off the comments as “locker room banter.”

Trump’s response to Ryan and other Republicans who dropped their support was predictable. Did he show even an ounce of humility? No. Instead, he lashed out at those who have withdrawn support of his candidacy.

This, too, has been a pattern of Trump’s campaign: If you disagree with him, you become his target. He does not know how to admit he is wrong, on anything.

And so, today, we no longer are struggling to find ways to support Trump in this race; the Supreme Court litmus test just isn’t enough to push even this conservative newspaper into making that endorsement. Endorsing Libertarian Gary Johnson, as other conservative newspapers have done, would simply be taking the easy way out. Johnson has no chance of winning. So the Daily News is left with Clinton as its only choice.

In choosing Clinton, we recognize the historic nature of her candidacy — an opportunity to break a centuries-old barrier and become the first woman to be president since the founding of our nation. But we also recognize that in terms of governmental philosophy, there is not much that we agree on. So our support for Clinton comes with a caveat: we do so holding fast to Paul Ryan’s goal of ensuring Clinton doesn’t receive a “blank check” once in office because Republicans maintain control of both Houses of Congress.