Presidential races

Philly Inquirer endorses Clinton

The Philadelphia Inquirer on Friday joined a growing list of publications endorsing Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton for president.

{mosads}The Inquirer’s editorial board praised Clinton as “easily the best candidate for president,” while criticizing Donald Trump for his rhetoric and conduct throughout the campaign.

“The landscape of the American political system may be forever changed by the Republican Party’s unapologetic nominee, whose scorched-earth, insult-driven, egomaniacal campaign long ago stopped caring about collateral damage to the party or down-ticket GOP candidates,” the Inquirer wrote.

“There’s a better choice for voters, and it isn’t even close. Many Americans consider Hillary Clinton just as flawed as Trump, but if you ignore the dueling TV ads and look at their records you will find that isn’t true.”

The editorial, however, did not ignore some of the issues surrounding the Democratic nominee. 

The Inquirer wrote that they have concerns with Clinton, particularly when it comes to her connections to Wall Street, the donors of the Clinton Foundation and reluctance to hold press conferences. 

“We have concerns about Clinton too, including her unwillingness to share transcripts of the dozens of highly compensated speeches she made to Wall Street firms; the relationship between major donors to the Clinton Foundation and nations she negotiated with as secretary of state; and her unwillingness to hold press conferences, which demeans the ideal of open government.”

However, despite these flaws, the editorial argues that Clinton’s experience “far [outweighs] Trump’s credentials to become president.”

The publication also defended the Democratic nominee over her handling of the 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya, and her use of a private email server when she was Secretary of State.
 
The editorial board said they didn’t believe Clinton was directly responsible for the ineffective U.S. response to the terrorist attack on the diplomatic compound in Benghazi. And they said that the investigation into her email practices did not reveal a reason to incriminate Clinton.