Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin called out media outlets like her own paper for trying to appeal to "MAGA readers" after the election.
The opinion columnist joined anti-Trump critic George Conway at an event at the 92NY Center for Culture & Arts on Dec. 15 to talk about the aftermath of the 2024 election, which saw President-elect Donald Trump win a second term.
After what she claims have been multiple examples of the media capitulating to Trump since then, Rubin singled out her own publication for wanting to reach out to Trump voters.
"People ask me all the time, why is the media so mamsy-pamsey? And there are two explanations," Rubin began. "The one is, they are convinced that if they would just move a little bit to the right, all those MAGA readers out there — now, you’ll notice the contradiction in terms, ‘MAGA readers’ — would pick up The Washington Post, and they would have more readers. What is the logical fallacy here? Yes, reader. And there’s nothing that The Washington Post could possibly do that would have those people take out a subscription. But I’m convinced they’re in there someplace."
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Though Rubin has frequently criticized the Washington Post, particularly its owner Jeff Bezos, for trying to become more politically neutral, she has made no effort to resign out of protest and even joked about rebelling from within the paper.
"I can be a rebel in my own house because the mainstream media is now, as we talked about, kind of capitulating, so I get to, like, thumb my nose," Rubin joked.
She also called out claims of her being politically biased, saying, "I think I am not biased at all. I am just accurate. Deadly accurate."
After Bezos announced in November that the Washington Post would not be making a presidential endorsement, Rubin was one of many columnists who attacked Bezos for "bending the knee."
"First of all, I do not believe the reason stated. I don't believe they have suddenly decided — he has suddenly decided that we should endorse everybody except presidential candidates, and that of all the elections, this is the one to start with this new policy," Rubin said on her podcast. "We endorsed a presidential candidate in 2020, no problem. And I perceive this, and even if it's not intended, it is inevitably perceived as bending the knee to Donald Trump at the worst possible moment when democracy is on the line."
Rubin also criticized MSNBC, where she works as a contributor, after it was reported that the "Morning Joe" co-hosts met with Trump after the election.
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"What were they thinking? Who do they think their audience was?" Rubin asked. "Well, perhaps this wasn't about their audience. Perhaps this was them trying to defend themselves or avoid retribution that they thought was coming their way. But really, these are rich, famous people. What have they got to worry about? It was just an appalling example at how eager so many elites are to fall in line, to curry favor, to deflect attention, to deflect any kind of incoming criticism that might come their way from the White House."
