The next time you hear one of President Donald Trump’s family members or associates speaking out about his immorality, his pathological lying, his mental instability and his unsuitability for office, ask yourself a question.
Why don’t you hear the same things from people around Joe Biden?
The answer is pretty simple: Biden is a man of strong character and principles. Trump couldn’t be further from that.
So while Biden isn’t perfect, his family and associates don’t stream out of the woodwork to warn Americans about his character. And that’s saying something considering Biden has held public office for almost 50 years, plenty of time to alienate friends and make political enemies.
Trump has held public office only 3 1/2 years, on the other hand, and look at how many people have sent up red flags about him. Hardly a week goes by when Americans don’t hear something deeply worrisome about Trump from behind the scenes.
Last week, it was his own sister revealing his ugliness, in conversations secretly recorded by Trump’s niece. Sample comments: “Donald is out for Donald, period.” “Donald is cruel.” “You can’t trust him.” “He has no principles. None.”
Trump’s sister, Maryanne Trump Barry, is a retired federal judge — and a good judge of character.
Trump’s niece also weighed in on Trump’s many flaws in her recent book about him. And how did Trump react to these revelations from his own family?
“Every day it’s something else, who cares,” he said in a statement responding to Barry’s remarks.
He’s right in one regard, about people coming forward practically every day, all helping paint a portrait of Trump’s cheating, his misogyny, his jingoism, his racism, his cruelty, his lack of education, his disdain of reading. Those around him verify what we all knew, that he can barely open his mouth without lying and that he completely lacks a moral compass.
From inside the White House come stories of a man devoid of the character and skills needed to lead. A recent example came from Miles Taylor, the former chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security, who described a president who hijacked the federal government to serve his political purposes and whose impetuous behavior created such crises as the family separations at the border.
Trump would make ridiculous requests, like to sharpen the spikes atop the border wall, while showing “vanishingly little interest in subjects of vital national security interest, including cybersecurity, domestic terrorism and malicious foreign interference in U.S. affairs,” Taylor wrote in the Washington Post.
We could go on and on with people sounding alarms about Trump. His former chief of staff. His former national security adviser. His former attorney. Former GOP campaign gurus. His business partners and subcontractors.
And then there’s Biden.
Again, Biden isn’t perfect — he has a remarkable capacity for committing faux pas, his history of being too touchy with female acquaintances is unsettling, and so was the hostility he displayed to a few people who asked him pointed questions on the primary campaign trail. His record also includes being a heavy driver of the War on Drugs social justice legislation that led to grossly disproportional incarceration of generations of Black Americans in recent decades.
But Biden differs from Trump in core ways that mean everything. He accepts accountability for his actions. He can admit making mistakes. He shows empathy to others. He’s intellectually curious. He does his homework. He works across the aisle.
Trump has no policy road map for the next four years. Biden put together the most comprehensive and well thought-out policy vision of all of the Demcractic candidates.
Trump’s focus is entirely on serving his own interests. Biden is a public servant with a record of helping others.
Trump disdains reading and reportedly watches eight hours of TV per day. Biden is a professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
These differences, and so many more, explain why you don’t see tell-alls from Biden’s associates, whereas there’s a chorus of voices divulging Trump’s lack of character.
If you are known by the company you keep and if your deeds speak louder than your words, Biden is a stellar performer while Trump conducts himself as a dweller from the cellar.