Biden’s incoming Deputy Chief of Staff Jen O’Malley Dillon sat down with the glossy women’s magazine Glamour on Tuesday, where she joined the ranks of other Democrats and media elites who have capitalized on insulting and treating Republicans and Trump supporters beneath contempt.
She began by lauding Biden for being “able to connect with people over this sense of unity” and promote bipartisanship, but quickly moved on to insult Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the rest of the Republican party.
“In the primary, people would mock him, like, ‘You think you can work with Republicans?'” she said. “I’m not saying they’re not a bunch of f***ers. Mitch McConnell is terrible. But this sense that you couldn’t wish for that, you couldn’t wish for this bipartisan ideal? He rejected that.”
“From start to finish, he set out with this idea that unity was possible, that together we are stronger, that we, as a country, need healing, and our politics needs that too,” she added.
In Biden’s media-declared victory speech in November he called for national unity, insisting that polarization and partisanship should be pushed aside for the greater good of the country.
“It’s time to put the anger and the harsh rhetoric behind us and come together as a nation,” Biden said. “It’s time for Americans to unite. And to heal.”
Biden’s words, however, appear to be nothing more than political rhetoric and throwaway lines.
O’Malley Dillon said political collaboration would not be “easy” due to polarization, while completely ignoring the fact that her own comments were polarizing.
“It is like a relationship. You can’t do politics alone. If the other person is not willing to do the work, then that becomes really hard,” the former campaign manager said. “But I think, more than not, people want to see impact. They want to see us moving in a path forward. They want to do their work, get paid a fair share, have time for themselves and their family, and see each other as neighbors.”
“And this overhang of this negative, polarized electorate that politics has created is the thing that I think we can break down,” she said.
