The Memo: Blame game intensifies over nation's divide | TheHill

President BidenJoe BidenMacro grid will keep the lights on Pelosi suggests filibuster supporters 'dishonor' MLK's legacy on voting rights Sanders calls out Manchin, Sinema ahead of filibuster showdown MORE campaigned for the White House on a promise to heal “the soul of America.”?

They cite instead fiery and near-monolithic Republican opposition to his agenda, the influence of former President TrumpDonald TrumpSanders calls out Manchin, Sinema ahead of filibuster showdown Laura Ingraham 'not saying' if she'd support Trump in 2024 The Hill's 12:30 Report: Djokovic may not compete in French Open over vaccine requirement MORE on the GOP and a political media culture that rewards polarization over cooperation.

A Quinnipiac University poll released last week indicated that Americans believed Biden was doing more to divide than to unite the country, 49 percent to 42 percent. .

Worryingly for the White House, independents saw Biden as more of a divider than a uniter by a 12-point margin, 50 percent to 38 percent.

Only 36 percent of all respondents, and just 31 percent of independents, said yes.

The framing of these questions irks progressives, who contend that the media elevates bipartisanship for its own sake. .

They also note that Republican opposition has not always thwarted the president.

Still, recent weeks have piled frustration upon frustration for the White House, with the Build Back Better bill stalling out and a vigorous push for voting rights legislation foundering almost as soon as it began.

But in that speech, Biden compared those who opposed the legislation with villains of history such as Jefferson Davis and Bull Connor.

Mitt RomneyWillard (Mitt) Mitt Romney​​Democrats make voting rights push ahead of Senate consideration Sunday shows - Voting rights legislation dominates Clyburn says he 'wholeheartedly' endorses Biden's voting rights remarks MORE (R-Utah) complained on the Senate floor that Biden had imputed “sinister, even racist, inclinations” to anyone who opposed the Democrats’ favored legislation.

Longtime observers on the GOP side — including some who have been harsh critics of Trump — contend that Biden does bear some blame for division

The ultracombative attitude extends to the halls of Congress where, just in the past year, one Republican member smeared a Muslim Democratic counterpart as a suspected terrorist, and another tweeted an animated video of himself killing a high-profile Democratic congresswoman