Editorial boards at both the New York Post and Wall Street Journal slammed former President Donald Trump in Friday editorials, with the former calling him “unworthy” to hold office again following his “damning” silence surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack.
“As his followers stormed the Capitol, calling on his vice president to be hanged, President Donald Trump sat in his private dining room, watching TV, doing nothing,” the editorial begins. “For three hours, seven minutes.”
The editorial by the right-wing tabloid, controlled by longtime Trump supporter Rupert Murdoch, follows the Jan. 6 House select committee’s investigation into Trump’s inaction, which on Thursday laid out Trump’s unwillingness to call off the violence.
“Trump only wanted one thing during that infamous afternoon: to pressure Vice President Mike Pence to decertify the election of Joe Biden,” the editorial board said. “He thought the violence of his loyal followers would make Pence crack, or delay the vote altogether.”
On the same day, the Wall Street Journal ran a piece from their editorial board titled “The President Who Stood Still on Jan. 6.”
The Wall Street Journal is also owned by Murdoch.
“Mr. Trump took an oath to defend the Constitution, and he had a duty as Commander in Chief to protect the Capitol from a mob attacking it in his name. He refused,” the article read.
“In the 18 months since, Mr. Trump has shown not an iota of regret,” the editorial continued. “On Thursday he claimed to be vindicated by a bill to clarify the Electoral Count Act…Character is revealed in a crisis, and Mr. Pence passed his Jan. 6 trial. Mr. Trump utterly failed his.”
Last month, the Post’s editorial board called Trump a “prisoner of his own ego” for his inability to admit the 2020 presidential election was not stolen from him. The board added that the GOP should leave Trump behind.
Friday’s editorial was even more to the point.
“It’s up to the Justice Department to decide if this is a crime,” it concluded. “But as a matter of principle, as a matter of character, Trump has proven himself unworthy to be this country’s chief executive again.”