Furious Washington Post readers have accused the news organisation of “caving in” to Donald Trump and failing to abide by its principles, while staff begged supporters not to cancel their subscriptions, as the media outlet struggles to cope with the fallout of its decision not to endorse Kamala Harris in the US presidential election.

For the first time in more than 30 years, the Washington Post announced on Friday its editorial board would not be endorsing a candidate.

“We are returning to our roots of not endorsing presidential candidates,” Will Lewis, the newspaper’s publisher and chief executive officer, said in a statement on Friday, less than two weeks before the critical poll.

In letters to the editor, readers expressed their “disappointment, disgust and despair” at the extraordinary decision, which has been fiercely criticised across liberal America and has prompted a wave of subscription cancellations at the newspaper that exposed the Watergate scandal and brought down a president.

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