WASHINGTON – Joe Biden was elected with a promise to heal the nation, saying that Republicans would have a post-President Donald Trump “epiphany” that would finally allow for bipartisan governance.
That was before Trump resisted the peaceful transition of power, before most House Republicans voted against certifying Biden’s election, before a crowd attacked Congress, and before Democrats installed metal detectors in the House and feared that his Republican colleagues could literally kill them.
Now, when Biden takes the inaugural stage on Wednesday, which weeks before was invaded by rioters, the former Senate cheater, who boasted of his ability to work even with ex-segregationists, will be torn between his instincts for reconciliation and demands out of responsibility to prevent this dark chapter of American history from being swept under the rug.
“It’s wonderful that he wants to unite the country, but he must be so relentless in his quest for justice,” said NBC News presidential historian Michael Beschloss. “In almost every presidential decision, there is a tension between unifying the country and dividing it, reconciling and seeking justice. But there are times in history when it really ignites, and this is one of those moments.”
Following the attack on the Capitol, Republicans said that thinking about the past would only let the wound infect, with Florida Sen. Marco Rubio saying, “Biden has a historic opportunity to unify America” that would be wasted by Trump’s impeachment.
But Democrats see these calls as empty. They say that leaving anyone out of danger will only create impunity and encourage future attacks on democracy.
“Without accountability, there can be no unity,” said Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, in a statement supporting a motion to investigate whether any Republican lawmakers violated his oath by engaging in an insurrection.
The new Democratic government will now face a series of questions about how to deal with what it is leaving behind.
Should Republican members of Congress be censored or expelled if they have a role in the riot? Should Trump be investigated and prosecuted for potential crimes? What about the members of your administration who, say, participated in family separation at the border? Should Trump be welcomed as a member of the so-called club of ex-presidents? Should he receive the benefits and allowances granted to former chief executives?
Biden promised to be “a president for all Americans”, but does that include people who question or undermine American democracy? What about the millions of Trump voters who don’t think he was legitimately elected?
More immediately, a new Democratic Senate will have to balance Trump’s impeachment trial with Biden’s legislative agenda.
“Hopefully, the trial will not be long,” said the new White House chief of staff, Ron Klain, on Friday.
Biden will set the tone in his inaugural speech on Wednesday. He will face an almost deserted National Mall, which was closed for security reasons, full of National Guard soldiers in uniforms and rifles instead of crowds of revelers.
“Except for Lincoln’s second inauguration, and perhaps later for FDR, it’s hard to think of a president who is taking office when the idea of America has been tested more than in the past four years and the past four weeks,” said David Litt , a former White House speechwriter for President Barack Obama.
But Litt said that Biden can speak directly to the American people, most of whom accepted his election and were horrified by the rebellion, and use his experience and temperament to be a “calming influence”.
“Simply because he is presidential, Biden will summon our best angels,” he said. “I think it will unify Americans, regardless of whether Republican politicians admit it or not.”
President Abraham Lincoln’s second inaugural speech, inscribed on his memorial, was an eloquent plea to “heal the wounds of the nation” in the last days of the Civil War, with “malice towards no one” and “charity for all”.
Some recent scholars, however, have wondered whether Lincoln and his successors were too quick to forgive and welcome back to defeated Confederation officers, reconciliation movements that helped lay the groundwork for decades of brutal white supremacy under the Jim Crow era.
“Historically, the United States is not very good at looking back. We tend to go on without fully evaluating the causes and consequences of our darkest hours,” said historian Jon Meacham, whose work Biden has publicly cited.
“This needs to change and we have the opportunity to change in our own time. There must be responsibility for lies and violations of the law. And we must learn from our mistakes. You cannot heal wounds that you choose to ignore,” added Meacham.
Senator Bob Casey, D-Pa., A Biden ally from his hometown of Scranton, said that Biden is exceptionally well positioned to try to make his inaugural theme, “United America” real.
“He will work on it every day and try to make deals with Republicans wherever he can. He will be patient,” said Casey in an interview. “I think he will be more patient than I am, frankly, and I am a very patient person. But that doesn’t mean he will continue to reach out and let them bite his hand every day.”
Still, Biden surprised many observers by deciding not to nominate any Republicans to his office and by not encouraging Trump to attend the inauguration next week. He welcomed Vice President Mike Pence.
President Gerald Ford forgave controversy his unfortunate predecessor, President Richard Nixon, to avoid a “prolonged and divisive debate” about whether and how Nixon should be held responsible. And some, including former FBI director James Comey, are now suggesting that Biden consider doing the same for Trump “as part of the country’s cure.”
Biden has already ruled out a pardon for Trump, saying in an MSNBC prefecture before the election that he would give in entirely to prosecutors and not get involved. And the fact that Democrats must control Congress means that party leaders on Capitol Hill will decide what to do with the troubled members of the Republican Party, allowing Biden to transcend those immediate decisions.
But the new president will set the tone for how former Trump officials and defenders should be treated in public life.
Frank Sharry, who heads the liberal immigration reform group America’s Voice, said that any government official involved in Trump’s family separation policy, in which young children are removed from their parents and locked up in detention centers, “should be expelled from public life and shunned by decent society for the rest of their lives. “
That would be a breach of precedent, however. Incoming presidents have largely avoided exposing the sins of predecessors.
Obama, for example, decided not to formally penalize the officials who helped carry out President George W. Bush’s torture and wiretapping programs, saying, “We need to look ahead instead of looking back.”
Tom Perriello, a former Democratic congressman from Virginia, said he hoped Biden would learn from his experience as Obama’s vice president.
“There is a learning curve. Obama bet a lot on bipartisanship. We joked in the early years that the only way to get a meeting with Obama was to be a Republican. And he didn’t get any credit for that,” said Perriello. “Obama wanted to be the Reagan of the Democratic Party and unite the country – and he was able to do that – but the Republicans did not allow it.”
Perriello, who worked in foreign countries recovering from the civil war and is now the executive director of the Open Society Foundations US, said his experience in places like Kosovo, Sierra Leone and Afghanistan showed him that short-term unity can sow for a long time deadline problems.
“Lack of responsibility is the quickest route to future instability and division,” said Perriello. “Accountability can take many forms, be it an accusation, a truth commission.”
But it must involve contrition, something he said a practicing Catholic like Biden would understand.
“The Catholic Church believes strongly in forgiveness – but you have to confess,” he said.