"The unexamined life is not worth living," Socrates declared at his trial, according to Plato. President Donald Trump and former President Joe Biden both appear to be trying to heed that advice, Trump in a "60 Minutes" interview and Biden in a new memoir − and both are failing spectacularly.
In the interview that aired Nov. 8 with correspondent Ross Douthat, Trump was a bundle of contradictions: reflective yet obtuse, apologetic but still arrogant. He gave ground on immigration but held firm on the Iran war. He acknowledged that voters rejected his party in the Nov. 3 midterm elections but dodged most of the responsibility.
Trump's predecessor has the same problem.
Judging by an excerpt from his memoir, "Promise Me, America," out Nov. 17, Biden
lacks introspection and self-awareness, too. His presidency ended with a whimper after he visibly struggled with mental and physical decline, which, by many accounts, his inner circle hid from America. Yet Biden blames Trump and stokes partisan division even as he preaches unity. He still can't come to terms with the mistakes of his own presidency.
After a decade of Trump and Biden, it’s clear Americans elected men capable of governing, but their flaws outweighed their strengths − chief among them a lack of self-reflection − and voters rejected them for it.
Trump still doesn't get why voters rejected him
Kudos to Douthat for deftly navigating Trump's stream-of-consciousness style. The president acknowledged that voters didn't like rising gas prices but doubled down on the Iran war. "You can't let Iran have a nuclear weapon," Trump said. "I think, historically, this will be a very good decision. Is it a good decision for today and tomorrow? Maybe not." He added, "I have to go with what's right for our country."
On corruption, the president downplayed and obfuscated, even though more than half of midterm voters said government corruption was crucial to their vote.
To Trump's credit, perhaps, he was more forthright on immigration, conceding that his deportation policy "might be too tough" and saying it's an issue he'd like to work on with Democrats.
Then, shortly after the interview was recorded Nov. 6, he named Stephen Miller, the architect of that immigration policy, his chief of staff.
But on the midterm results, Trump was most himself. He believes Republicans lost because he wasn’t on the ballot: “I think if I was on the ballot, it would’ve been a much different situation because you saw the level of popularity and love. There was love. We had massive rallies.”
What Trump fails to grasp is that the blue tsunami was a full-throated rejection of him. About 4 in 10 voters said they cast their ballots to express opposition to Trump. They voted as if he were on the ballot − exactly as he’d asked them to.
Biden still doesn't get it, either
As for Biden, his full book isn't out for about a week. But if the excerpt in The Atlantic is any indication, the former president is still deflecting and obfuscating, despite having had nearly two years out of office to reflect on his disastrous presidency.
His most glaring flaw is the same as Trump's: a lack of self-reflection. Only in Biden's case, it's rooted in hypocrisy, not arrogance.
In this excerpt, Biden seems obsessed with Trump. He takes aim at everything from Trump’s personality to his pardons of “nearly 1,600 insurrectionists” from the U.S. Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021.
That’s rich coming from Biden, who granted a whopping 4,245 acts of clemency in four years, more than any president on record, including pardons for his own son and preemptive pardons for other family members. That’s an egregious abuse of power, to say the least.
But it’s Trump himself who really grates on Biden’s delicate sensibilities: “In my case, that feeling was magnified by the dismissive and destructive nature of Donald Trump, who seemed unable to tolerate the idea that someone else’s accomplishments might be worth building on rather than tearing down.”
What accomplishments? Biden presided over the highest inflation in nearly 40 years, among many other problems. But he won’t let it go.
“It was clearly going to be a crueler government,” Biden writes of a second Trump term. “We would be a less tolerant society. … We would be a sicker society. … We would be a less democratic society. … We would be a more fearful society.”
After cataloging every grievance he has with Trump, Biden asks whether we can find a way “that unites instead of divides us.”
His self-righteous sermon on unity is a lesson in division. Voters rejected him, too − for that, for his hypocrisy, for his lack of self-reflection and for many other reasons.
This is America's problem now
Both presidents are willing to reflect to some degree on their decisions in office, but neither is capable of doing so with much candor or real introspection.
Perhaps that’s partly the rigidity that can come with age − Trump is 80, and Biden turns 84 on Nov. 20. But their inability to reflect seems hardwired into their personalities. Whatever the reason, their lack of humility and accountability is neither statesmanlike nor helpful to their parties. Whom does it serve to be sanctimonious to the bitter end? Certainly not Americans.
In the "60 Minutes" interview, Douthat asked the president whether Democrats would try to impeach him again. "What have I done?" Trump replied. "I've had the best two years in the history of the presidency."
Judging by Trump's interview and Biden's book, either man could have said that. It's the flaw they share above all others – and now it's America's problem.
Nicole Russell is an opinion columnist with USA TODAY. She lives in Texas with her four kids. Sign up for her newsletter, The Right Track, and get it delivered to your inbox.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: CBS interview, new memoir show Trump, Biden share fatal flaw | Opinion
