Patrick Soon-Shiong's outspoken daughter, Nika, posted on X on Friday that "genocide is a line in the sand."
The daughter of Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong is weighing in on the controversy that has erupted around the paper’s decision not to endorse a presidential candidate in 2024, saying that “for me, genocide is a line in the sand.”
In a thread of social media posts on Thursday, Nika Soon-Shiong attributed the decision to an opposition to Democratic candidate Kamala Harris’ position on the war on Gaza. She wrote that her father, a South African transplant surgeon, had worked as an emergency surgeon at Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto during apartheid. “For my family, Apartheid is not a vague concept.” Maintaining that the decision to endorse was one made by the Los Angeles Times editorial board, Nika added, “This is not a vote for Donald Trump. This is a refusal to ENDORSE a candidate that is overseeing a war on children.”
She continued, “I’m proud of the LA Times’ decision just as I am certain there is no such thing as children of darkness. There is no such thing as human animals.”
While some outlets have suggested that Soon-Shiong may have pushed for a nonendorsement in order to curry favor with former President Donald Trump in the event he is re-elected, two well-placed sources at the Times suggest that the real reason is antipathy toward Harris for her and the Biden administration’s stance on Israel. “They’ve both been very critical of the administration and its support for Israel, and Nika has been especially vociferous about that,” says one source. “She has regularly accused Israel of genocide and condemned the administration for their support. Just look at her Twitter feed — she has a Palestinian flag in her bio. Patrick is less vocal, but he agrees with her. I think there’s no question that their refusal to endorse Kamala stems from that.”