Biden’s boasts of bipartisanship simply are not true

In his State of the Union address, President Joe Biden made numerous dubious claims — but none was more brazen and outlandish than his claim to have delivered on his promise to reach across the aisle and unite the county.

“The people sent us a clear message,” Biden declared. “Fighting for the sake of fighting, power for the sake of power, conflict for the sake of conflict, gets us nowhere. That’s always been my vision for the country: … to restore the soul of the nation . . . to unite the country. We’ve been sent here to finish the job.”

Finish the job? Days before his address, a Fox News poll found 81% of Americans see our country as “a dysfunctional family that’s breaking apart” — up 10 points from two years ago when Biden took office. And 50% say Biden has made our political divisions worse, while only 19% think he is making things better, according to a new CBS poll.

Americans have not forgotten Biden’s venomous 2022 speech comparing Republicans who opposed his partisan election bill to racists and traitors and describing them as enemies. They have not forgotten how Biden smeared the 74 million Americans who voted for his opponent as “semifascist” and “a threat to this country.”

But the biggest whopper in his State of the Union address was his claim to have presided over a golden age of bipartisan cooperation. What world is he living in? Until Biden came along, every COVID-19 relief bill was approved with overwhelming bipartisan support — including five under President Donald Trump. But Biden rejected an offer from 10 GOP senators who gave him a path toward a bipartisan bill — and instead passed a massive $1.9 trillion in social spending disguised as COVID relief (which helped unleash inflation and labor shortages) with Democratic votes alone. He took something that had been bipartisan under Trump and made it partisan.

He followed that up with a massive climate spending bill - disguised as the Inflation Reduction Act — also passed with Democratic votes. He then bypassed Congress entirely and ordered the cancellation of up to $1 trillion in student loans by executive fiat.

Biden threatened to veto his one truly major bipartisan achievement — his infrastructure bill — after the Senate

passed it. He urged House members of his own party to take it hostage as leverage to pass his Democrats-only “Build Back Better” plan. It eventually passed despite his partisan machinations. The bipartisan gun legislation he claimed credit for also happened despite him, with Senate Democrats telling him to stay out of the negotiations.

Not only that, Biden launched false partisan attacks from the rostrum of the House Tuesday — accusing Republicans of wanting to “sunset” Medicare and Social Security, citing a plan by Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) that virtually no other Republican has endorsed. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has taken Social Security and Medicare off the table in debt limit negotiations, and Biden knows it. When Republicans on the floor booed and objected, Biden said: “So we all apparently agree: Social Security and Medicare are off the books now. We got unanimity!” Wow, another great bipartisan achievement.

The chutzpah is stunning. But it’s not likely to have much of an impact. Americans believe Biden’s presidency is a failure, as 41% say they are financially worse off than they were before Biden took office - the most negative response to that question in nearly 40 years — while 62% think he has accomplished “not very much” or “little or nothing” and say they would be dissatisfied or “angry if Biden were reelected in 2024.

Biden didn’t just fail to unite the country; he actively sought to divide us. He promised to “end this uncivil war” and put “my whole soul” into “bringing America together.” For two years, in both rhetoric and action, he has done the opposite.