Forgiveness: Biden v Doocy
One year ago, Joe Biden was sworn into office as the 46th President of the United States.
During his inauguration speech, performed in front of dozens of other politicians, and hundreds of National Guardsmen, and pretty much no one else, the new President quoted Abraham Lincoln.
Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. When he put pen to paper the president said, and I quote, 'if my name ever goes down in history, it'll be for this act, and my whole soul is in it'.
My whole soul is in it today, on this January day. My whole soul is in this. Bringing America together, uniting our people, uniting our nation.
-Joe Biden
My whole soul is in uniting the country.
Well, one year later, Americans don’t believe him.
There’s a new poll out from Pew Research. On every issue, Biden is under water. A majority of Americans don’t think he has the ability to handle the COVID virus, to make good decisions about the economy, to deal with an international crisis, to make wise decisions about immigration.
But, the topic Americans have the least faith in Biden’s abilities is brining the country closer together. 69% of Americans told Pew Research they didn’t have any confidence in his ability to unite America. Only 30% said they did, and most of them were only somewhat confident.
Maybe here’s a pretty good example of why. Earlier this week, President Biden held a press conference on the economy. At the end of it, his handlers were escorting all of the reporters out of the room. Fox News’ Peter Doocy tried to get in one last question, so he asked the President if the rising inflation in America was a political liability for him.
Biden sat at a table across the room, and started muttering to himself. Problem was, there was a microphone right in front of him, and the microphone was still on.
It’s a great asset. More inflation. What a stupid son of a bitch.
-Joe Biden
OK, someone who’s been in politics as long as Joe Biden should understand the concept of a hot mic by now. He’s not new. This isn’t new. He was just talking into that mic, so why did he think it wouldn’t pic up what he was saying? But, whether that stupid comment was due to Biden’s obvious mental decline or his perpetual lack of social grace and wisdom is a topic for another podcast.
Right now, let’s get back to uniting the whole country.
Obviously, Joe Biden has not placed his whole soul in uniting the country the way Abraham Lincoln did. Lincoln literally sacrificed everything he had to end slavery and keep the Union together. What has Joe Biden sacrificed in the name of national unity? I’m asking. Is there a single thing? What has he given up in an effort to unite us all? Nothing that I can think of. And, it shows.
If you dedicate your whole soul to something, it becomes a driving force. I have placed my whole soul into my wife and my family. That’s why I wake up every day and the first thing I do is I make my wife breakfast. My whole soul is in making her happy, and that dedication results in action. It has to.
Think about the thing that’s most important to you; the thing you put your whole soul into. Didn’t making the decision to put your whole soul into that thing or that idea or that person change some aspect of your behavior?
So, if Joe Biden’s whole soul is in uniting this country, why did he insult a fellow citizen simply because that person asked him a question?
No. Joe Biden’s whole soul is not in uniting this country. If it was, he would have behaved differently, not just at that press conference, but throughout this past year.
What is required in uniting a country? What does it take to bring together millions of people who have been hurt and offended by each other; who are yelling and screaming at each other; who think the people on the other side aren’t just wrong, but are evil? How could you possibly unite people like that?
There’s no simple answer that I can see. But, there is one essential ingredient. Forgiveness.
Since Biden offered up Lincoln as an example, let’s go back to him. In Lincoln’s 2nd Inaugural Address, given on the same steps of the Capitol where Biden gave his address more than 150 years later, Lincoln said,
“With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”
-Abraham Lincoln
Malice toward none.
Dictionary.com defines malice as “desire to inflict injury, harm, or suffering on another, either because of a hostile impulse or out of deep-seated meanness:”
When Lincoln spoke those words, the Civil War was still raging. It was in its last days, but there was still fighting and death and malice on American soil. Nevertheless, Lincoln said that we needed to bind up our nation’s wounds and that the way to do it was to make sure we, as Americans didn’t have a desire to inflict injury, harm, or suffering on anyone else. Lincoln was saying we needed forgiveness in order to bring unity to America again. Malice towards none requires forgiveness towards all.
By the way, there’s an interesting historical tidbit here. John Wilkes Booth, the actor who would become Lincoln’s assassin on that day was a spectator. You can see him in a photo of Lincoln’s address. He’s standing in the crowd that’s right behind President Lincoln, only a few rows up. That means Lincon was advocating for malice towards none, for forgiveness, directly in front of his soon to be assassin.
Could you forgive your assassin?
Back to Biden. Do you think Joe Biden has forgiven Donald Trump? I’m not asking if Trump has done anything to Biden that he needs to be forgiven for. Clearly, Biden was offended by Trump, even before the 2020 campaign. So, whether Trump needs forgiveness or deserves forgiveness isn’t the question. The question is has Biden forgiven Trump for his offenses, trespasses, slights, or debts, real or imagined?
Based on Biden’s behavior, you’d have to say, “no.”
Do you think Joe Biden has forgiven Trump’s supporters? He compared the small handful of Trump supporters who invaded the Capitol on January 6th 2021 to Nazis and the 911 terrorists just a couple of weeks ago. Does that sound like forgiveness to you?
So, if Biden, as President of the United States, hasn’t been able or willing to forgive the 78 million Americans who voted for Trump, how could he possibly hope to unite the country?
If his whole soul was indeed in uniting Americans, then his first action would have to be to forgive Trump and all of Trump’s supporters for whatever wrongs he believes they committed. Then, his second act would be to emulate Lincoln and insist his own supporters do the same, and forgive their fellow Americans for whatever slights and wrongs they believe Trump and his supporters committed. But, that hasn’t happened, and there’s nothing to indicate it will anytime soon.
Which brings us back to Pete Doocy. Why would the President call Peter Doocy a stupid SOB? Because he thinks Fox News is Trump’s mouthpiece, and he hasn’t forgiven Trump or Trump’s supporters. He called Doocy a name because in his mind, Doocy works for the enemy, and is thus deserving of enmity.
Now, Pete Doocy had a right to be offended. He was just called a name by the supposed most powerful man on the planet simply for doing his job. I think most people would be offended for being called a name simply for doing their job. But, Doocy, kind of laughed it off. Take a listen to how he described the event to the hosts of Fox News’ The Five
And I couldn’t even hear him because people were shouting at us to get out. But, somebody came up to me later in the briefing room and said, “Did you hear what the President said?” And, I said, “No, what?” And, they said, “He called you a stupid SOB,” and I said, “Did he say SOB?” and the person said, “No.”
-Peter Doocy
He’s laughing about it. Not in a maniacal laugh sort of way, but more in a “I’m surprised by the absurdity of this moment” sort of way.
Later that hour, President Biden actually called Peter Doocy on his cell phone. Here’s how Doocy described that event to Sean Hannity.
Within about an hour of that exchange, he called my cellphone and he said, “It’s nothing personal, Pal.”
-Peter Doocy
OK, so, it’s not exactly an apology. Biden said, “it’s nothing personal, Pal.” How would you feel, if someone called you a stupid SOB, and then when they realized you heard them call you that, they said, “look, it’s nothing personal, Pal.” How would you feel?
Sean Hannity didn’t seem satisfied with Biden’s apology either…
Hannity: I’m a Christian. I believe in forgiveness. OK. Did he apologize?
Doocy: He cleared the air. I appreciated it. We had a nice call.
Hannity: That’s not an answer. That doesn’t sound like an apology.
Doocy: He said, “It’s nothing personal, Pal,” and I told him that I appreciated him reaching out.
Hannity: Oh. Pal. OK, Pal.
It’s nothing personal, Pal. Wouldn’t you still feel like it kind of was personal? You insulted me and my mom, how is that not personal?
With malice towards none. That’s how.
Sean Hannity missed it here. I think a lot of people do on a regular basis. If you believe in forgiveness as a Christian, then it doesn’t matter if someone apologizes or not. You don’t give someone forgiveness because they deserve it. You give someone else forgiveness because you need it.
I mentioned how Abraham Lincoln was talking about forgiveness right in front of the man who would kill him. Do you know who else forgave his assassins? Jesus.
Luke 23:34. “Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.””
If you want to unite a nation, you have to start with forgiveness, not because others deserve it, but because you need it. And, that’s exactly what Peter Doocy did. Doocy forgave Biden. Even as Sean Hannity was saying, that’s not enough, that the President owes you a bigger apology before you forgive him, Doocy told his friend it was enough . He offered the President grace. He offered the President forgiveness.
Hey, Sean, the world is on the brink of like, World War III right now with all this stuff going on. I appreciate that the President took a couple minutes out this evening while he was still at the desk to to give me a call.
-Peter Doocy
And, what was the result? Later that night, Jake Tapper went onto Jimmy Kimmel and actually supported Peter Doocy. Tapper is not a fan of Fox News. And, Fox News is certainly not a fan of Jake Tapper. But, by the end of the night, they were united on this one single issue. The President shouldn’t have insulted Peter Doocy, and Peter Doocy handled the whole thing with class.
In that one act, Doocy did more to unite the country than Joe Biden has done in the past year.
But, look, forgiveness isn’t easy. That’s probably why it’s also not common. Just a few months after Lincoln told the country to bind up the nation’s wounds with malice towards none, the Republicans in Congress decided to go the opposite way. They wanted to punish the south for the Civil War and we ended up with Reconstruction, which eventually led to more resentment, which lead to the KKK and Jim Crowe, and another century and more of racism and hate and fresh wounds.
To unite a country, you must forgive. But, for most of us, forgiveness isn’t easy. For most of us, forgiveness is pretty hard. The question before us today is where have we placed our whole soul? Is your soul invested in binding our nation’s wounds, or in creating new ones?