In an Oct. 19 interview with Steven Scully of the Bipartisan Policy Center, Peter Shinkle discussed President Biden’s options for responding to fascism’s rise by making bipartisan cabinet appointments just like President Franklin D. Roosevelt did in 1940.
Biden is one of only four presidents since 1945 who have made no bipartisan cabinet appointments. The others are Donald Trump, George H.W. Bush and Jimmy Carter. All were one-term presidents.
Yet Biden still has time to make bipartisan cabinet appointments to fight the rise of fascism, just like FDR did when he named Republicans Henry Stimson and Frank Knox to his cabinet in 1940 to bring the nation together and prepare Americans for war against Adolf Hitler’s Germany.
“I don’t think we should look at this time in our history and throw up our hands in despair. I think the answer is to look for solutions, and that is what President Roosevelt did when he reached across to Henry Stimson and Frank Knox in June of 1940 as the Nazi war machine was crushing democracies in Europe,” Shinkle said.
Scully, senior vice president for the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington, D.C., is host of “The Briefing with Steve Scully” on the POTUS Channel on Sirius XM Channel 124.
As for why Biden hasn’t made bipartisan cabinet appointments to counter former President Donald Trump’s raising the threat of fascism, Shinkle said, “It’s a great question. I’d love to see his answer to that question… It is possible that he is doing precisely what FDR did, which was to be extremely strategic about the moment he made that decision.”
He added: “Personally, as a person who believes deeply in American constitutional democracy, I hope he is considering the option of throwing a lifeline to those Republicans who believe in constitutional democracy and would support him.”
October 19, 2023