The New York Times announces they're endorsing Hillary Clinton for president

The New York Times is endorsing Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton for president, the paper's editorial board announced Saturday.

"In any normal election year, we'd compare the two presidential candidates side by side on the issues. But this is not a normal election year," the paper wrote. "A comparison like that would be an empty exercise in a race where one candidate — our choice, Hillary Clinton — has a record of service and a raft of pragmatic ideas, and the other, Donald Trump, discloses nothing concrete about himself or his plans while promising the moon and offering the stars on layaway."

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton appears on stage during the final day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Thursday, July 28, 2016. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

The editorial board said the goal of their endorsement is to persuade those hesitant to vote for Clinton, saying that the endorsement would be "an empty exercise if it merely affirmed the choice of Clinton supporters."

"Running down the other guy won’t suffice to make that argument. The best case for Hillary Clinton cannot be, and is not, that she isn’t Donald Trump," the board wrote. "The best case is, instead, about the challenges this country faces, and Mrs. Clinton’s capacity to rise to them."

[sharequote align="center"]"Running down the other guy won’t suffice to make that argument. The best case for Hillary Clinton cannot be, and is not, that she isn’t Donald Trump."[/sharequote]

As far as Clinton's private email scandal, the Times simply lamented over Clinton's "penchant for secrecy" while saying she made a "poor decision" in keeping a private email server during her tenure at the State Department.

"That decision deserved scrutiny, and it’s had it," the Times wrote.

The editorial also took a strike at Republican nominee Donald Trump, saying they believe he is the "worst nominee put forward by a major party in modern American history." Another editorial on the topic would be forthcoming, the board said.

The Times has endorsed only Democrats for president back to John Kennedy in 1960 and has backed that party's presidential nominees more often through its history. Its last Republican endorsement for the presidency was Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952 and 1956. And its first endorsement, in 1860, was for Republican Abraham Lincoln.

The editorial will appear in print in the paper's Sunday edition, which happens to fall one day before the first debate between Clinton and Trump.

The Times also backed Clinton earlier this year over Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.) during the Democratic primaries.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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