The New York Times editorial board on Monday defended its controversial decision to break tradition and endorse two candidates for the Democratic presidential primary by essentially saying the endorsement was not an explicit choice of one candidate over another.

“I think people misunderstand the point,” deputy editorial editor Kathleen Kingsbury told CNN of the paper’s peculiar backing of both Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar. “We’re not putting weight one candidate versus another, tapping that candidate for victory, instead we wanted to give people a wide range of understanding of the race and we really thought voters should be the ones that decide the future of the Democratic Party.”

Kingsbury continued: “We came out of hours and hours of endorsement interviewing feeling the Democratic Party is really at this tension point and that it itself—the party and voters—need to determine what the path of the party should be... It’s a fight they have been needing to have since 2016. What better vehicle is there than voting and the public forum?”