Ex-WaPo Editor: This Is a Straight Bezos-Trump 'Quid Pro Quo'

[Ramsey Barner]

Source: Daily Beast

The Washington Post’s outgoing editor-at-large and longtime columnist has made explosive claims that its owner Jeff Bezos struck a deal with Donald Trump in order to kill the newspaper’s endorsement of Kamala Harris.

Robert Kagan, who resigned from his position on Friday after more than two decades at the publication, told the Daily Beast that Trump’s meeting with executives of Bezos’ Blue Origin space company the same day that the Amazon founder had killed a plan to support Harris was proof of the backroom deal.

“Trump waited to make sure that Bezos did what he said he was going to do, and then met with the Blue Origin people,” he said on Saturday. “Which tells us that there was an actual deal made, meaning that Bezos communicated, or through his people, communicated directly with Trump, and they set up this quid pro quo.”

The alleged collusion between Bezos and Trump, Kagan says, “is just the beginning” and that if the former president wins a second term, there will be “a lot of self censorship [in the media] and a lot of changing course just to be sure that they’re not going to be punished.”

Read more: https://www.thedailybeast.com/ex-washington-post-editor-robert-kagan-this-is-a-straight-jeff-bezos-donald-trump-quid-pro-quo/

[Bernardo de La Paz]

1. Cowardly folding to tyrants buys zero protection in the long run, for anybody. . . . . nt

[Tansy_Gold]

23. But isn't Bezos a kind of tyrant himself?

This is more like two tyrants colluding than one "folding" to the other. IMHO, of course.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

24. He'd only be a sub-tyrant, like Putin's oligarchs, squeezed for DoneOld's benefit, left alone when not useful. . . . nt

[yardwork]

27. Or... windows....

[Marthe48]

2. Horrifying

Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Thanks to Robert Kagan and other honorable people for turning a flashlight on the critters under the rocks.

[Evolve Dammit]

3. From what little I know, this seems not only plausible and perhaps spot on. Hedging the bets.....n/t

Cowards. Total cowardice.

[erronis]

11. Wouldn't it be so easy for Bezos to come out and be honest about this?

Wouldn't that set a precedent that other ultra-billionaires might follow?

[Evolve Dammit]

13. Would be nice. Not holding my breath

[Freethinker65]

4. Democracy for sale in broad daylight.

[JoseBalow]

5. We'll not forget this fuckery

[ArkansasDemocrat1]

9. Fuck no

I'll never click on a WaPo or LA Times link again. I trust Mother Jones and The Guardian more.

[calimary]

20. OR this complete card-carrying cowardice.

[Sugarmaggie]

6. People forget

That everything Trump touches turns to crap. Ask Rudy G. Enjoy your ride down the drain.

[calimary]

21. Welcome to DU, Sugarmaggie!

Few people here forget that, gotta say!

[chowder66]

7. It's happened before, it's happening again and it will continue especially if he's elected again.

[Nasruddin]

8. Can Bezos really believe

that Musk, who thinks he owns Trump, is going to let Bezos continue to take part of Musk's own business area?

I guess this is one of those Kahneman - risk strategy areas - if Trump wins after Harris endorsement, the business is 100% lost, & if he loses, he faces possibly losing the business - maybe 95% chance - for the sellout. He just doesn't realize that the business is 100% lost with or without endorsement.

[turbinetree]

10. We are watching in real time how oligarchs operate...........never in my 73 years of being in this country

where men and woman died to defend and protect the Constitution so that we the public have a free press and there is a reason why this amendment is a First Amendment and Jeff Bezos and Patrick Soon-Shiong have just thrown that out the window............I am glad that I never was a subscriber to those two papers..............

[aocommunalpunch]

12. My plan to avoid Amazon at all costs seems

to be finding legitimacy. Fuck Amazon. Fuck WaPo. Fuck billionaires. Oh, and fuck Republicans. ALL OF THEM.

[AverageOldGuy]

14. Something about multibillionaires

In the course of accumulating a fortune, something happens and the individual accumulating the fortune ditches any sense of morality, social responsibility, and similar weaknesses and becomes committed to accumulating more and more and more money.

Striking a deal with Trump ensures Bezos will be on Trump’s do-not-disturb list. Just as the German industrialists supported Hitler. The difference is that the Allies liberated Germany from Hitler - - - no one is coming to save us from Trump.

[OldBaldy1701E]

26. I feel most of them did not have any of that to begin with.

They had no soul to speak of so they filled that void with the power that having material wealth gives. Which is, again, why we need to. stop letting these revenants get away with being 'above' us. They are not and we need to show them that they are not.

[Evolve Dammit]

15. Billionaires intervening for ultimate power

[Magoo48]

16. When we buy it, read it, turn it on, click it; they aren't the problem we are.

[Oliver Bolliver Butt]

32. I just cancelled my subscription.

[mdbl]

17. Oh well, no more Amazon for us

it was nice while it lasted, but we won't really miss it.

[Butterflylady]

18. Bezo is not as smart as I thought......

So he made deal with the devil. Doesn't he know that everything dump touches dies. Bezo will pay a price for this.

[bmichaelh]

19. Shakespeare

Cannot trust any assurances of Trump.

To quote from Shakespeare.
And this is just one play.

LORD E
He’s a most notable coward, an infinite
and endless liar, an hourly promise-breaker, the owner
of no one good quality.
--Shakespeare, All’s Well That Ends Well 3.6.9-11

PAROLES
He will lie, sir, with such volubility
that you would think truth were a fool.
--Shakespeare, All’s Well That Ends Well 4.3.248-49

[ShazzieB]

31. I love Shakespearean insults!

For a while after the 2016 election, I couldn't bear to utter, type or even think TSF's name, so I started referring to him using Shakespearean insults. I compiled a long list so I wouldn't have to use the same ones over and over again.

I must say that making the list and then referring to him as a mouldy rogue, a canker-blossom; a lump of foul deformity; or an elvish-marked, abortive, rooting hog was quite therapeutic during that dark time!

Here are some more examples:



(Note: This was not at DU. I didn't start posting here regularly until the 2020 election cycle.)

[electric_blue68]

33. Ha! Oh, that is fun, and cathartic!

Artist, and former sometime graphic design here.
Love it! 🎨 👍 😄

[dobleremolque]

22. Canceling subscriptions and swearing off Amazon isn't going to hurt Jeff Bezos. It'll only hurt the

employees of those companies. What will hurt Jeff Bezos is electing Kamala Harris, and giving her Democratic majorities in both the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, for her to work with during her first term as President of the United States. Imposing a billionaire tax and working to eliminate the obscene levels of income disparity in this economy is one of her goals. Let's help her achieve that.

[Blues Heron]

25. lets do both

[Scrivener7]

39. Not continuing to give him our dollars is the only recourse we have against him.

If you want this to change, that is the only way to effectively do it.

WE have given him TWO monopolies, and now he can use that power we gave him against us. And he is doing it.

Time for us to stop contributing to our own downfall.

[Baitball Blogger]

28. So, Bezos was the Stormy Daniels in this hush bribe deal?

[C_U_L8R]

29. Bezos has left himself without a plan B. Brilliant.

[surfered]

30. Trump can't be trusted to keep his bargain. He's a liar.

[Deminpenn]

34. This is all about future government contracts

I knew as soon as I read the part about Blue Origins.

Trump has now set up a competition, usually a good thing to drive down costs, but in this case it will be a competition between Bezon and Musk for how much they'll pay Trump to pick SpaceX or Blue Origins for these lucrative prospective contracts.

[Rocknation]

35. But why didn't WaPo just endorse Trump instead?

Last edited Sun Oct 27, 2024, 11:01 AM - Edit history (1)

Why didn't Bezos simply order WaPo's editors to either endorse Trump or get fired?


Rocknation

[RidinWithHarris]

36. Simply not endorsing Harris pissed off a lot of the editorial and writing staff...

...with at least one resignation that I've heard of. It would have been a bloodbath if Bezos tried to push the editors that far.

Whatever we might think of the WaPo editors and writers for having already done too much normalizing and sane-washing of Trump, I think Bezos would have needed outside help, like Trump's own campaign staff, to crank out an endorsement of Trump. I don't think anyone in-house could bring themselves to do that much dirty work.

[Rocknation]

43. Speaking of WaPo's "normalizing" of Trump

Let's spin an oldie but goodie, LOL:

Trump's (AND Biden's) "new"...(2020) votes ALL came from those who DIDN'T vote in 2016...which is why I consider this WaPo "analysis" to be "fake news"...

Rocknation

[Initech]

46. Seriously! Taking a stand, even if it's the wrong one, is better than not taking one!

[Rocknation]

48. "If you choose not to decide, you'll still have made a choice."

Last edited Sun Oct 27, 2024, 06:31 PM - Edit history (1)

Most decisions are between good and bad, but some are between bad and worse -- in which case you should ALWAYS choose bad, because choosing worse ALWAYS makes you LOOK worse.

Bezos may have thought that he had chosen the lesser of two of the "bloodbaths" mentioned above. But embracing a Trump endorsement would have been "within his rights" as the owner of WaPo, with those who disagreed able to choose quitting.

Depriving Trump of an endorsement now that he is indisputably trailing less than two weeks before all voting ends makes Bezos look cowardly and disloyal at best -- and Trump-like at worst.

Rocknation

[Initech]

37. Jeff Bezos can go shove his precious fucking billions where it don't shine.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

38. Why can't they just go ahead and publish the endorsement?

It's a matter of losing the paper and their jobs, now or later.

[Blue for the win]

41. Pathetic

Why don't we do to the Washington Post and Amazon what the trumpies did to Bud Light. It's about the only way you're going to wake Bezos up this pathetic small man. Willing to sell the country down for his own money

[JT45242]

42. Shouldn't that be an undeclared contribution in kind?

Can they go after bezos and penis rocket incorporated for attempted bribery?

[NotHardly]

44. Bezos is a f*cking coward and self-censorship for money is the clue.

[S/V Loner]

45. What has trump said or done in his lifetime...

that would make intelligent people trust him to come through with whatever he tells them? Not one thing except retribution. As I have said before. I don't think it has anything to do with trump and everything to do with the real people behind trump like Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, and other billionaires. If trump gets elected he will be gone in short order. That is the only reason the billionaires are putting up with the lose cannon that trump is and if billionaires care about anything at all it is stability in regards to their affairs.

[malthaussen]

47. Since he resigned over it, I'm prepared to believe him.

It's exactly the sort of thing these wealthy weasels would do, anyway.

-- Mal