Yesterday, Joe Biden managed to mumble out an insult in which he called the reopening of Texas and Mississippi “Neanderthal thinking.” It didn’t matter that the data suggests mask mandates are largely pointless, having done nothing to stop the winter spikes of COVID. Biden had his talking points and he was going to deliver them, and that means that anyone who dares to try to live with some semblance of autonomy must be denounced.

Of course, such rhetoric doesn’t exactly jive with Biden’s “let’s all unify” narrative so Jen Psaki set out to try to smooth things over today.

Q: "How does comparing someone with a neanderthal help convince them to change course and get on board with your public health message?"@PressSec: "The behavior of a neanderthal, just to be very clear. The behavior of." pic.twitter.com/HSwEI4uis5

— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) March 4, 2021

This is the kind of sidestep you’d expect from a child. You see, Biden wasn’t insulting all those people in red states that want the choice to wear a face diaper or not. No, he was only insulting their behavior or something.

Yeah, that’s not going to wash. Everyone saw how quick Joe Biden was to anger and pop off about a situation he clearly hadn’t put much of any thought into. Had he noted Texas’ current hospitalization rate? Did he study their daily infection numbers? Of course not, because it’s easier to just trash people who would push back on his edicts than to actually debate the merits of policy. Heck, Biden hasn’t even managed to do a single press conference in his first 43 days. Actually making salient arguments just isn’t really his thing.

Meanwhile, people were feeling the unity.

“come and heal with me, you stupid neanderthal” is exactly the kind of unifying message our country needs to repair divisions.

— Logan Hall (@loganclarkhall) March 4, 2021

Call me crazy, but maybe the guy who ran on “healing the soul” of our nation should check his language a bit if he truly wants to bring people together. But he doesn’t really want to bring people together. Biden is as divisive and hot headed as any other Democrat politician. There’s nothing unique, empathetic, or calming about him and his presidency. That’s simply myth making by a press corp that has completely subjugated itself to the current administration.

At the end of the day, we all live in a republic founded on federalist principles. States have the right to decide how they respond to emergencies, including pandemics. If a state decides it’s time to stop ineffective mitigation measures, that’s their choice. It’s really none of Biden’s business, and the more he mouths off about it, the more the country will devolve into tribal feuding. I doubt he cares, though.