Allysia Finley
WSJ, July 14, 2024
“Like Mr. Biden, Barack Obama campaigned on unifying a divided nation. His policies and condescension toward the hoi polloi did the opposite.”
“I sought this office to restore the soul of America,” Joe Biden declared in a Nov. 7, 2020, victory speech. “I pledge to be a president who seeks not to divide but to unify.”
Saturday’s attempted assassination of Donald Trump underlines Mr. Biden’s failure on this score. America is more fractured on racial, ideological and cultural lines than it was four years ago. Chaos, discord, violence, recriminations and antisemitism have only increased. Rather than unify the country, Mr. Biden has deepened America’s divisions by escalating attacks on Mr. Trump and his supporters with demagoguery, policies and even prosecutions.
Mr. Biden isn’t responsible for Saturday’s shooting any more than Mr. Trump was for the attack on then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul, on Oct. 28, 2022. Yet days after that assault and before the midterm election, Mr. Biden gave a speech blaming Mr. Trump: “After the assailant entered the home asking, ‘Where’s Nancy? Where’s Nancy?’ Those were the very same words used by the mob when they stormed the United States Capitol on January the 6th.” Mr. Trump’s “Big Lie” that the 2020 election was stolen “fueled the dangerous rise in political violence and voter intimidation over the past two years,” Mr. Biden added. … [To read the full article, click here]