“The epiphany is not happening and for his own sake it’s time for Biden to shift gears,” said Adam Jentleson, a former Senate Democratic leadership aide. “It was fine as empty political rhetoric but continuing to lean into it just sets Biden up to fail. If he keeps pressing the idea that he can usher in a new era of bipartisanship, all Republicans have to do is deny him cooperation and he will have failed to deliver on one of his central promises.”

Presidents typically get some Cabinet nominees confirmed by the Senate on their first day in office. McConnell’s office did not comment when asked if that tradition will extend to Biden. Unless Democrats win both Georgia seats in the Jan. 5 runoff, he’ll be the first president since 1989 to take office without his party controlling both chambers of Congress…

Some of the president’s critics don’t expect the party to shed its Trumpian colors. One of them is Tim Miller, a veteran GOP operative who worked to defeat Trump and officially left the party this week.

“Sitting here today watching these Republican a–holes sit silently while the president trashes our democracy with preposterous conspiracies and becomes the first modern president to refuse to concede an election, it’s clear that any hopes for reconciliation were folly,” Miller wrote.