Scientific American Makes First Presidential Endorsement In Its 175-Year History

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Topline

Scientific American, the oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the United States, had not made a presidential endorsement in the publication’s 175-year history, until Tuesday, when the magazine’s editors wrote they felt “compelled” to endorse Joe Biden for president.

Democratic presidential nominee and former Vice President Joe Biden participates in a roundtable … [+] event with military veterans at Hillsborough Community College on September 15, 2020 in Tampa, Florida. Biden is making stops in Tampa and Kissimmee in the pivotal swing state of Florida. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

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Key Facts

The editorial begins by declaring that “the evidence and the science show that Donald Trump has badly damaged the U.S. and its people—because he rejects evidence and science.”

The endorsement focuses primarily on the ineffective pandemic response by the Trump Administration and the sitting president’s continued attempts to downplay the severity of the situation and the deadliness of the coronavirus, which he has frequently compared to the flu.

“The most devastating example is his dishonest and inept response to the Covid-19 pandemic, which cost more than 190,000 Americans their lives,” the editors wrote.

The editorial states that Trump has also attacked environmental protections and medical care, and that his “refusal to look at the evidence and act accordingly extends beyond the virus.”

Scientific American criticizes Trump’s continued efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act while failing to offer an alternative, along with the president’s proposed billion-dollar cuts to the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The editors argue that “Joe Biden, in contrast, comes prepared with plans to control Covid-19, improve healthcare, reduce carbon emissions and restore the role of legitimate science in policymaking” and that Biden willingly “solicits expertise and has turned that knowledge into solid policy proposals.”

Key Background:

This week, President Trump has been criticized for failing to acknowledge the role climate change has played in the destructive, raging wildfires that have wreaked havoc on the West Coast. On Monday, a California environmental official implored Trump to properly account for climate change science in his decision making. “It’ll start getting cooler,” Trump replied. “I wish science agreed with you,” said Wade Crawfoot, California’s Natural Resource Secretary. The president smirked, then said, “I don’t think science knows, actually.” Trump has insisted that “forest management” is the cause of the record wildfires. “You know, in Europe, they have forest cities,” Trump said Tuesday morning. “And they don’t have fires like this, and they have more explosive trees. They have trees that will catch easier. But they maintain their fire.”

Tangent:

On Sunday, the Washington Post reported that the Trump Administration appointed David Legates, “an academic who has long questioned the scientific consensus that human activity is causing global warming,” to help run the agency that produces much of the climate research funded by the U.S. government. Legates, who was previously forced out of his role as Delaware’s climatologist due to his controversial views, is taking a senior leadership role at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Critical Quote:

“Trump’s reaction to America’s worst public health crisis in a century has been to say, ‘I don’t take responsibility at all.’ Instead he blamed other countries and his White House predecessor, who left office three years before the pandemic began.”—Scientific American

Big Number:

68%: That’s the percentage of Americans who say they don’t trust what President Trump says about the coronavirus, according to an ABC News/Ipsos survey published over the weekend. Also, two thirds of Americans say that President Trump acted too slowly when dealing with the pandemic.