Byron York’s Daily Memo: For a NeverTrumper, when Biden’s ‘empathy’ turns to ‘callousness’

FOR A NEVERTRUMPER, WHEN BIDEN’S ‘EMPATHY’ TURNS TO ‘CALLOUSNESS.’ President Biden’s handling of the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan — not the fact of withdrawal itself, but Biden’s disastrous bungling of it — has disturbed many Americans. Polling shows majorities believe the withdrawal is going badly and that Biden is responsible for it. The president’s overall job approval rating has, for the first time, dipped below 50 percent (it is now 47.8) in the RealClearPolitics average of polls.

But one small group is particularly disappointed. Some NeverTrump Republicans, or former Republicans, were strong supporters of George W. Bush. They felt Trump, in addition to his attacks on Jeb Bush and the entire Bush family in the 2016 campaign, betrayed the brand of Republicanism the Bushes represented. Some also believed Trump was morally bankrupt and a deeply negative force in American politics. So they chose to support Joe Biden.

Now comes the problem. This week Peter Wehner, a former aide in the Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush administrations now with the conservative Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, wrote a story in The Atlantic headlined “Biden’s Long Trail of Betrayals.” In it, Wehner called Biden’s Afghanistan withdrawal “a catastrophic mistake that has led to a Taliban takeover, undermined our national interest, and morally stained Biden’s presidency.”

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Wehner ticked off the case against Biden. The then-senator was wrong about the first Gulf War. Wrong about the second Gulf War. Wrong about the surge. He was so wrong about everything, Wehner noted, that former Defense Secretary Robert Gates famously wrote that Biden “has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.”

Wehner concluded that Biden is wrong so often because he, Biden, thinks he knows more than everybody and thus has “far too much confidence in his own judgment.” And that judgment is often bad. But there’s more than that, Wehner wrote. “Biden’s foreign-policy record has one other through line: the betrayal of people who have sided with the United States against its enemies and who, in the aftermath of American withdrawal, face a future of oppression, brutality, and death.”

“There is a troubling callousness to it all,” Wehner concluded.

So Biden’s problems go beyond simple bad judgment, or thinking he is the smartest guy in the room. Biden, Wehner suggested, has a more serious character flaw that has led him not just to withdraw from Afghanistan but to do so in a particularly callous way.

That assessment was in stark contrast with another article by Wehner, also in The Atlantic, published on November 2, 2020, the day before the presidential election. That article was headlined “Biden May Be Just the Person America Needs.” In that article — accompanied by a photograph of Biden praying in church — Wehner first portrayed Donald Trump as a man without feelings and with “little or no regard for the emotions, experiences, or suffering of others.” Biden, on the other hand, was shaped by a different upbringing, by his struggle with stuttering, and, perhaps most of all, by the loss of his first wife and daughter in an auto accident in 1972, and then, in 2015, by the death of his son Beau. Wehner argued that it gave Biden a deep sense of empathy and an appreciation for the life experiences of others.

“Those are beautiful qualities to be found in an individual,” Wehner wrote. “They can also be important, even essential, qualities in presidents.” Biden could connect with the American people, and also “make us better than who we are,” Wehner wrote. “This moment has found Joe Biden.”

Wehner admitted that in the past, he was not terribly impressed with Biden. “In a different time, with a different president, Biden would not stand out,” Wehner wrote. “But Trump’s particular maladies have created a moment in which Biden’s greatest strengths as a person are most needed by the nation.”

Just nine months later, Wehner saw a deep flaw in Biden’s character on a life-and-death issue in Afghanistan. In an email exchange, I asked if that has changed his view of supporting Biden in 2020. “Biden as a human being has some real strengths and some real weaknesses,” Wehner replied. “He’s shown some real empathy over the course of his life, and in this case, he’s shown real callousness.”

“In terms of my vote for president for Biden over Trump,” Wehner continued, “many Republicans voted for Biden with some reluctance; he was hardly our perfect choice. However, President Biden’s predecessor, Mr. Trump, was a man of sociopathic tendencies, more deeply and thoroughly corrupt than any president in our history, and dangerous and destructive in ways Biden isn’t.” Wehner said Trump’s behavior since last November has confirmed that view. “He was as bad as we said he was, and maybe worse.”

Some Trump supporters believe Biden’s performance in his first seven months in office simply must have created doubts among those Republicans and former Republicans who voted for him. And surely a debacle on the scale of the Afghanistan withdrawal would change some minds. But that is wishful thinking on the part of those Trump supporters. Many NeverTrumpers invested an enormous amount, intellectually, emotionally, and reputationally, in their position. They’re not going to change now, no matter what happens in Kabul.

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