Scientific American Endorses Joe Biden, Its First Pres. Endorsement In 175-Year History

One day after President Trump denied climate science to California officials who are battling catastrophic wildfires, the magazine published an endorsement for Biden from its editors.

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden departs the Delaware State Building after early voting in the state's primary election on September 14, 2020 in Wilmington, Delaware. Biden has scheduled campaign stops in Florida, Pennsylvania and Minnesota later this week. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden departs the Delaware State Building after early voting in the state's primary election on September 14, 2020 in Wilmington, Delaware. Biden has scheduled campaign stops in Florida, Pennsylvania and Minnesota later this week. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

For the first time in its 175-year history, the Scientific American magazine has endorsed a presidential candidate, Democrat Joe Biden.

“This year we are compelled to do so. We do not do this lightly,” the editors wrote for the October 2020 issue, published online Tuesday.

“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 continued. “The most devastating example is his dishonest and inept response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which cost more than 190,000 Americans their lives by the middle of September.”

The editors went on to list Trump’s attacks on environmental protections, health care, research and science agencies, and added, “That is why we urge you to vote for Joe Biden, who is offering fact-based plans to protect our health, our economy and the environment.”

“Trump's rejection of evidence and public health measures have been catastrophic in the U.S.,” they wrote.

Related: Trump Admitted Downplaying COVID-19 Despite Knowing It Was "Deadly," Bombshell Audio Reveals

The endorsement came one day after President Trump visited California and met with Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, as well as state environmental officials, to discuss the ongoing wildfire crisis, which is ravaging much of the West Coast, including Oregon and Washington state.

At the meeting, California Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot rebutted Trump’s claims that forest mismanagement is responsible for the fires, telling the president that the climate crisis is making each season warmer and drier, contributing to the deadly fires. Trump responded, “It’ll start getting cooler… You just watch.” 

“I wish science agreed with you,” the official responded. 

“I don’t think science knows, actually,” Trump said. 

The same day, former vice president Joe Biden gave a speech in which he referred to Trump as a “climate arsonist.”

While Biden has previously announced a $2 trillion clean energy plan approved by progressive climate activists, and has made addressing the climate crisis a key part of his 2020 campaign, Trump has continued to deflect blame. Scientific American editors took note.

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

The editors’ endorsement is not just a denouncement of Trump, but a stamp of approval on Biden’s proposed policy solutions to ongoing crises. They wrote a laundry list of anti-science actions that Trump has taken, from cutting funding to key scientific research agencies to his attacks on the Affordable Care Act.

“Joe Biden, in contrast, comes prepared with plans to control COVID-19, improve health care, reduce carbon emissions and restore the role of legitimate science in policy making. He solicits expertise and has turned that knowledge into solid policy proposals,” they wrote.

The magazine editors also pointed out that Biden consistently relies on scientific experts, including epidemiologists, bioethicists and immunologists, to frame his proposals on responding to COVID-19 and other public health issues. Biden’s advisory group of experts “does not include physicians who believe in aliens and debunked virus therapies, one of whom Trump has called ‘very respected’ and ‘spectacular,’” they wrote, referring to Stella Immanuel, a Houston doctor who has pushed fraudulent theories to the public. The Daily Beast reported that Immanuel has given church sermons about “demons” spreading illnesses to humans by having sex with them in their dreams.

If that's not compelling enough, perhaps most important of all in the Scientific American editorial is the callout of Trump’s known disinformation, and how it impacts American lives.

“His lies encouraged people to engage in risky behavior, spreading the virus further, and have driven wedges between Americans who take the threat seriously and those who believe Trump's falsehoods,” they wrote. They called White House attacks on leading infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci “despicable.”

Read the full endorsement here.