Rolling Stone endorses Biden, calls Trump ‘categorically unfit to be president’

Rolling Stone magazine is endorsing Democratic nominee Joe Biden for president, saying in a piece on Monday that the U.S. has lived “under a man categorically unfit to be president” for the last four years.

“Fortunately for America,” the magazine said at the top of its endorsement of the former vice president, “Joe Biden is Donald Trump’s opposite in nearly every category: The Democratic presidential nominee evinces competence, compassion, steadiness, integrity, and restraint.”

“Perhaps most important in this moment, Biden holds a profound respect for the institutions of American democracy, as well as a deep knowledge about how our government — and our system of checks and balances — is meant to work; he aspires to lead the nation as its president, not its dictator,” the magazine continued. “The 2020 election, then, offers the nation a chance to reboot and rebuild from the racist, authoritarian, know-nothing wreckage wrought by the 45th president.”

“And there are few Americans better suited to the challenge than Joe Biden,” it added.

The magazine said it “is no exaggeration to say that the American experiment hangs in the balance in the November election” before pointing to President Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which has resulted in more than 219,000 deaths in the U.S.

Electing Biden in November, the magazine said, would be the first step of getting the country on track toward “stepping back from this precipice” and “turning away from the politics of resentment to rebuild our country based on a shared idea of American progress.”

The magazine said the former vice president has “progressive solutions to every major problem facing the country” — which it said spans a path to racial justice, protecting LGBTQ rights, a “more just immigration policy,”  “navigating the pandemic” and restoring the country’s “national character.”

“And the former vice president has the experience to put that platform into practice,” the magazine said.

“America doesn’t need a saint in the Oval Office. But the country has been reeling with a broken man at the Resolute Desk. Trump is a narcissist and an egotist, a shameless liar and an open bigot, a man who simply cannot understand the notion of sacrifice for the greater good, even as he demands unthinking fealty from those in his service,” Rolling Stone said its endorsement.

“Every election presents a stark choice. The contrast between the 2020 candidates — and the coalitions behind them — could not be clearer. This is a fight between light and darkness. Rolling Stone is proud to stand in the light and endorse Joe Biden for president. Vote like your country — and perhaps even your life — depends on it,” it added.

Four years ago, Jann Wenner, editorial director of Wenner Media and the founder of Rolling Stone, published a piece on the site backing former then-Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton when she was running against Trump.

–Updated at 3:11 p.m.