Biden’s bid to unite US hits wall of poll lie

WASHINGTON: He meets with opponents in the White House, in Congress, over video, even on an airport runway.

But however many Republican hands Joe Biden shakes he can’t get to grips with one extraordinary problem: most Republicans still won’t accept he’s the legitimately elected president. The disconnect with reality among Republicans is bizarre even by Washington standards.

"In modern history we’re really not looking at anything remotely commensurate to this," said Capri Cafaro, who teaches at American University’s School of Public Affairs and is a former Democratic Ohio state senator.

"This is pretty unprecedented." All this week, Biden will be promoting his unity pitch. On Tuesday, he meets virtually with a bipartisan group of governors. Wednesday, he’ll meet at the White House with the four top Democratic and Republican leaders from Congress.

On Thursday, Biden will be back sitting down with the proverbial enemy -- this time five Republican senators. The Wednesday talks, with Democrats Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer and Republican chiefs Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy, will put the most powerful -- and fiercely opposed -- people in the country around the same table.

"They will have a dialogue about policy areas of mutual agreement and identifying common ground on which they can work together and deliver results on the challenges facing American families," a White House official said. But Biden will be talking to leaders of a party in which 55 percent of their supporters, according to an April Reuters/Ipsos poll, still think the Democrat’s defeat of Donald Trump last November was rigged.