Name: “Unfit to Remain in Office”: In the Wake of Insurrection, the Nation’s Newspapers Excoriate Trump En Masse
Brand: vanityfair.com
SKU: vanityfair-com-440
Availability: OnlineOnly

critic

“Unfit to Remain in Office”: In the Wake of Insurrection, the Nation’s Newspapers Excoriate Trump En Masse

preview

It’s a rare day when the nation’s editorial boards, all around the country, left and right, are united in what they believe is the most vital and urgent message to impart upon their readers. Thursday, January 7, was one of those days.In the wake of the previous afternoon’s violent, stomach-churning, ragtag insurrection attempt by a mob of extremist Donald Trump supporters at the direct incitement of their dear leader, America’s newspapers wielded their institutional voices to vigorously condemn the coup-ish actions at the Capitol, as well as the outgoing president’s role in the undemocratic melee. “It’s extremely unusual that we have a moment in time when virtually every newspaper in the country is in agreement both on the outrage of what happened and the causes,” said Andy Rosenthal, former longtime editorial page editor of The New York Times. “I think that’s a great thing.”At their most forceful, the editorials called for Trump to be immediately discharged from his position in the White House, even with less than a mere two weeks left in his term. “The president is unfit to remain in office for the next 14 days. Every second he retains the vast powers of the presidency is a threat to public order and national security,” The Washington Post. “Mr. [Mike]&nbsp;Pence should serve until President-elect Joe Biden is inaugurated on January 20.” The New York Daily News similarly that Trump “should be impeached and removed from office immediately. He should be ousted via the 25th Amendment.” Those statements were followed by a reality check that “with just days left in his term, neither of those things will come to pass. He must leave the White House on January 20 standing on his own two feet. If he won’t, drag him squealing.”An in The New York Times, “Trump Is to Blame for Capitol Attack,” described Trump’s “seditious rhetoric” and “the performance of a man unwilling to fulfill his duties as president or to confront the consequences of his own behavior.” The commentary continued, “The president needs to be held accountable—through impeachment proceedings or criminal prosecution.”Another theme running through this week’s editorials was the complicity and responsibility of a number of Republican leaders and Trump cronies, from senators Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley to Rudy Giuliani. That was the takeaway of an , which concluded, “Attacking democratic institutions attacks democracy itself, and what the nation witnessed Wednesday in Washington is the power of the mob to destabilize even the most stable of democracies. The responsibility for this day of unconscionable attacks by Americans on the heart of our elective system belongs to Trump. But his enablers have much to answer for as well, and much to regret.”Some of those enablers were castigated by their local papers of record. “No one other than President Donald Trump himself is more responsible for Wednesday’s coup attempt at the U.S. Capitol than one Joshua David Hawley, the 41-year-old junior senator from Missouri, who put out a fundraising appeal while the siege was underway,” the editorial board of The Kansas City Star. “This, Senator Hawley, is what law-breaking and destruction look like. This is not a protest, but a riot. One woman who was apparently part of the&nbsp;pro-Trump mob was fatally shot by Capitol Police&nbsp;as lawmakers took cover.... Hawley’s actions in the last week had such impact that he deserves an impressive share of the blame for the blood that’s been shed.”Over in Northern California, meanwhile, a headline in The Sacramento Bee did not mince words: “The coup failed, but Republicans must face prosecution for seditious U.S. Capitol attack.” Nor did the text of the : “Especially guilty of fomenting sedition are several prominent California congressmen. Chief among them: House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield, a soulless anti-democracy conspirator who would be glad to see this nation fall so that his political ambitions might live.”Most PopularThe anti-Trump sentiment was also on display in the nation’s most prominent conservative opinion pages. The New York Post, which supported Trump in his 2016 and 2020 campaigns but recently took a sharp about-face as the president propagated fantastical claims of election fraud, —albeit with a dash of both-sides-ism—that “while the roots of this madness were many, with some blame across the spectrum, it’s fundamentally on President Trump.... What did he think was going to happen after he led a mass rally in Washington’s center urging his most die-hard supporters to stop Congress from doing its duty?”The Wall Street Journal, which like the Post is owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, stating that “Mr. Trump’s refusal to accept his loss, and the false hope he gives to his supporters, is validating the worst things his critics have said about him. He is being enabled by Rudy Giuliani and Peter Navarro, but also by people like Mr. Cruz and Senator Josh Hawley...Mr. Biden will become president at noon on January 20...As for Mr. Trump, to steal some famous words deployed in 1940 against Neville Chamberlain: ‘In the name of God, go.’”Even the New York Sun, once a buzzy print newspaper and influential purveyor of neoconservative thought, was getting some attention for an on its zombie-esque website: “The right thing for President Trump to do in the wake of the attack his followers made on the Congress is to resign, effective at the earliest opportunity, and for the presidency to be assumed for the remainder of the term by Mike Pence.”I asked Rosenthal if he would have called for Trump’s removal were he still running an editorial page. “If I was still running an editorial page, I would have called for his removal a long time ago,” he said. “I also think there’s nothing Donald Trump can say or do now that is worthy of news attention unless he resigns and turns himself over to the federal marshals. That is the only thing Donald Trump can do now that is worthy of being reported in the press.”More Great Stories From Vanity Fair&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;— Mary Trump Thinks Her Uncle’s Are Just Beginning— There’s a Who Don’t Believe It’s Real— Doug Band: Confessions of a — Will Spring for a Postpresidential Fox Gig?— Ivanka Desperately Tries to on Her Way Out— After Remaking CNN and Antagonizing Trump, — With , Is the FDA Ready to Inspect Where They’re Made?— From the Archive: Probing the of Randy Quaid and His Wife, Evi— Not a subscriber? to receive full access to VF.com and the complete online archive now. is Vanity Fair’s senior media correspondent and the author of **. He previously worked at publications including Politico and the New York Observer. Follow him on and .The freshest-and most essential-updates from Washington, Wall Street, and Silicon Valley.

It’s a rare day when the nation’s editorial boards, all around the country, left and right, are united in what they believe is the most vital and urgent message to impart upon their readers. Thursday, January 7, was one of those days.In the wake of the previous afternoon’s violent, stomach-churning, ragtag insurrection attempt by a mob of extremist Donald Trump supporters at the direct incitement of their dear leader, America’s newspapers wielded their institutional voices to vigorously condemn the coup-ish actions at the Capitol, as well as the outgoing president’s role in the undemocratic...

public

Joe Pompeo

Vanity Fair is a monthly magazine of popular culture, fashion, and current affairs published by Condé Nast in the United States.  The first version of Vanity Fair was published from 1913 to 1936. The imprint was revived in 1983 and currently includes five international editions of the magazine. As of 2018, the Editor-in-Chief is Radhika Jones.

“Unfit to Remain in Office”: In the Wake of Insurrection, the Nation’s Newspapers Excoriate Trump En Masse

No article scores yet.

CRITIC REVIEWS

PUBLIC REVIEWS