NY Times Before Shooting: Trump Unfit to Serve

Donald Trump is unfit to serve a second term in the White House, the New York Times editorial board wrote a few days before Saturday's assassination attempt on the former president.

"Mr. Trump has shown a character unworthy of the responsibilities of the presidency. He has demonstrated an utter lack of respect for the Constitution, the rule of law and the American people," the editorial read. "Instead of a cogent vision for the country's future, Mr. Trump is animated by a thirst for political power: to use the levers of government to advance his interests, satisfy his impulses and exact retribution against those who he thinks have wronged him. He is, quite simply, unfit to lead."

The opinion piece by the editorial board, which is separate from the New York Times newsroom, also harshly criticized the Republican Party and its endorsement of Trump.

"A once great political party now serves the interests of one man, a man as demonstrably unsuited for the office of president as any to run in the long history of the Republic, a man whose values, temperament, ideas and language are directly opposed to so much of what has made this country great," the editorial read.

The editorial board listed five "essential" qualities that a president must have and said Trump fails on each: moral fitness, principled leadership, character, a president's words, and rule of law.

The editorial board also weighed in on the debate currently raging among Democrats about the fitness of President Joe Biden to run again for the White House, but lamented the failure of the GOP to have such a debate "about the manifest moral and temperamental unfitness of their standard-bearer."

The editorial also called on voters to "pay attention to what [Trump] did as president and allow yourself to truly inhabit what he has promised to do if returned to office."

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