Former “Fox News Sunday” anchor Chris Wallace challenged President Joe Biden’s sister, Valerie Biden Owens, on her brother’s apparent failure to implement his Inauguration Day “unity” pledge.
“We can see each other not as adversaries but as neighbors. We can treat each other with dignity and respect. We can join forces, stop the shouting, and lower the temperature. For without unity, there is no peace, only bitterness and fury,” Biden said as he took the oath of office in January 2021.
The president’s sister joined Wallace on his recently-launched CNN+ program — “Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace?” — and she appeared to blame former President Donald Trump for Biden’s inability to bring Americans together in the way he had promised, saying, “The divisiveness of a past president has very, very, very deep roots.”
Mediaite reported on the full interview, which covered a number of topics, but focused on Wallace’s questions about the president and his promise to unify the country.
“But that pledge, that hasn’t happened. Why not?” Wallace asked.
“I think it’s happened on Joe’s part, I think Joe’s has certainly been a uniter, or worked his very best to be a uniter,” Owens replied, saying that her brother had always had the ability to reach people because he could empathize with them.
“Joe has a characteristic, a quality. It’s called empathy,” she explained. “And it’s the connective tissue with humankind. And unless we have, we develop some empathy and step back and say, ‘You know what, Chris, I don’t agree with you on anything,’ or ‘I don’t agree with what you just said. But you know, let me, maybe I don’t have all the facts. Let me think about it. Tell me again why you hold that position,’ as opposed to ‘I don’t agree with you because you’re a no-good son of a gun.’ And you know, whatever expletives that I want to put on.”
“Joe has done his best to unite the country,” Owens continued, pivoting then to tout some of Biden’s accomplishments since taking office. “He has done some really significant things in his first year in office with bipartisan support working for infrastructure. How about with the COVID vaccine, preparing for the new wave that’s going to come …”
“I’m not saying he hasn’t accomplished things,” Wallace pushed back, noting that Biden’s failure to unify the country wasn’t necessarily his fault entirely but that it still hadn’t happened.
“It’s not all his fault. It’s clearly not all his fault,” Owens agreed. “We are so polarized. And Joe, to the contrary of exacerbating that, has always been the one who is the healer who’s tried. You cannot lead unless you can heal. That’s a Ben Nighthorse Campbell quote.”
Wallace went on to question Owens about something she had written, reading aloud, “Whereas Trump is vulgar. Joe is gracious, whereas Trump is mean-spirited, Joe is kind. He, Trump, had the mind not of a president, but of a vengeful dictator, and running against him felt almost degrading.”
“Whether it’s true or not, Valerie, that’s not exactly lowering the temperature,” Wallace continued, appearing to suggest that Owens was also playing a part in preventing the American people from unifying.
“I think the divisiveness of a past president has very, very, very deep roots,” she replied, apparently deflecting the blame for any continued animosity toward Trump.
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Source: Dailywire
