Former Washington Post editor Jonathan Capehart details his departure

Former Washington Post associate editor Jonathan Capehart detailed his departure from the outlet while guest hosting for Lawrence O’Donnell on MSNBC’s “The Last Word” on Thursday, citing a recent shift in the editorial board’s direction as the reason for his exit.

Capehart told viewers that the Post’s insistence on an optimistic vision of America while “American democracy is in peril” made him contemplate whether the outlet was a good fit for him, and eventually led to him stepping away from his spot on the editorial board.

“In February, the owner of the Post decided that the section would focus on the twin pillars of personal liberties and free markets. We in the section received an email from our new editor, which reiterated that and added, it’s also important that we communicate with optimism about this country in particular and the future in general. How can we communicate with optimism about the future in general when we’re living in the here and now, where American democracy is in peril?” he questioned.

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Following President Donald Trump’s re-election, Washington Post owner and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos announced that the editorial section of the paper would be changing course, prompting then-opinion editor David Shipley to leave. 

“We are going to be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets. We’ll cover other topics too, of course, but viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others,” Bezos posted on X in Feb 2025.

Bezos’ changes led to a sharp backlash in his newsroom, with staffers telling Fox News Digital last month that morale had collapsed at the paper. Washington Post Executive Editor Matt Murray announced a buyout program for staffers seeking to leave the paper in May. 

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Capehart asked how the outlet’s editorial board was expected to “constantly extoll the beauty of a home’s doors, crown moldings, and windows when the rest of the house is engulfed in flames and its foundation is flooding.”

He added that “patriotism is incomplete” if it doesn’t allow for a “mirror to be held up” to America and its people, and slammed the Trump administration for straying from the country’s founding principles.

“The administration is playing chicken with federal courts. The administration is using masked federal agents to snatch people off the streets and send them to hellish prisons abroad. The administration deployed the military on the streets of an American city. The president is using his office to enrich himself and his family. The president has turned Congress, a co-equal branch of government, into the staff wing of the executive branch,” he claimed.

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“And we’re supposed to ignore it, leave it to others to wrestle with on their news pages and websites? No, no, no, no, no, no, no. The Constitution gives us the inherent, unapologetically patriotic right to rail against such affronts to democracy and the rule of law, and the First Amendment demands it,” Capehart added.

Fox News’ David Spector contributed to this report.