Biden Rallies Global Democracies as U.S. Hits a ‘Rough Patch’

WASHINGTON – A few days before President Biden’s Democracy Summit, a virtual meeting of more than 100 countries that opens Thursday, the Chinese State Department released a stinging report on the American democratic system.

The “gunfire and farce on Capitol Hill fully revealed what was behind the grandeur of American-style democracy,” the Chinese report said, citing the January 6 uprising. In a country where “money makes the difference,” the report says, “deadlocked political paralysis” makes government impossible.

At the end of November, a spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry was similarly contemptuous. “The United States claims the right to decide who deserves to be called a democracy and who doesn’t,” said spokeswoman Maria Sakharova, according to the state news agency Tass. “That definitely looks cynical. I would say it looks pathetic given the state of democracy and human rights in the United States and the West in general. “

A backlash from authoritarian governments that have not been invited to a summit meeting to support democratic values ​​is hardly surprising.

But even US officials admit that American democracy is burdened, among other things, by political polarization, racial injustice and discord, voting rights restrictions and domestic extremism. Some activists urge Mr Biden to pay more attention to problems at home before turning overseas.

“You can’t try to export and defend democracy globally if you can’t protect it domestically,” said Cliff Albright, co-founder and executive director of the Black Voters Matter Fund, an Atlanta progressive nonprofit group. “You can’t be the global firefighter if your house is on fire.”

This tension will arise during the two-day virtual meeting of heads of state and government from exemplary democracies such as Germany, Japan and Sweden to countries with mixed balance sheets such as Georgia, Nigeria and Pakistan. The meeting, which will also be attended by journalists, civil society activists and business leaders, is intended to be a forum for democracies to exchange ideas and criticism, US officials say. Participants will also make commitments on political reform, corruption, human rights and other matters.

Understand the US Capitol Riot

On January 6, 2021, a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol.

“The US is clearly going through a difficult period right now,” said Michael J. Abramowitz, president of Freedom House, a non-partisan group that campaigns for human rights and democracy. The United States ranks 50th on Freedom House’s annual index of global freedom, he said. Last month, the Stockholm-based International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Aid put the United States on its list of “recidivist democracies”.

Domestic political inadequacies should not prevent the United States from promoting its core values, where authoritarianism and populism have gained prominence in recent years, Abramowitz said, “as long as it is done with humility.”

“Without the commitment and leadership of the United States, the cause of democracy will not move forward,” he said. “Who else is going to do it?”

Mr Biden said the world was at an historic “turning point” in the struggle between democracy and autocracy. He has also vowed to show that the US system is superior to centralized models like China’s, which tolerate little opposition. Administrative officials say they are up to this challenge but are under no illusions about their domestic problems.

“We approach this week with both humility and confidence,” Uzra Zeya, Undersecretary of State for Civil Security, Democracy and Human Rights, told Foreign Ministry reporters on Tuesday.

She added: “Humility, that we want to listen and learn and not shrink from our shortcomings; Confidence in our constant pursuit of a more perfect union; and our assurance that democracies, if they work together, can and will offer something to the citizens of the world, regardless of the raw material that autocrats and authoritarians are trying to sell. “

Others cautioned against shifting the limelight overseas while troubles festered at home. Federal authorities have stated that violent domestic extremists will continue to be encouraged by false claims about the 2020 election. Former President Donald J. Trump is fighting in court to prevent the release of documents requested by a congressional committee investigating the mob attack on the Capitol. And Republicans put voting restrictions in 19 states this year.

While Mr Biden has identified defending the right to vote as an urgent priority, many of his supporters complain that federal legislation to strengthen suffrage, standardize basic electoral rules, and ban gerrymandering has made no headway in Congress.

A White House fact sheet published ahead of the summit cited the adoption of its bipartisan infrastructure plan as a prominent example of a functioning democracy. However, Marc H. Morial, president and executive director of the National Urban League, said more action was needed against domestic threats to democracy. He called the summit “a missed opportunity”.

“You can’t separate what’s going on around the world from what’s going on in the United States,” said Mr. Morial.

The Biden administration could also use the summit to develop longer-term plans to work with other countries facing similar threats to democracy, said Rachel Kleinfeld, senior fellow of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a Washington think tank. For example, officials could develop strategies to crack down on US extremist groups that are increasingly connecting overseas, she said.

Understand the entitlement to Executive Privilege on January 6th. inquiry

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A key problem that has not yet been tested. Donald Trump’s power, as a former president, to keep information from his White House secret has become a central theme in the House of Representatives investigation into the January 6th Capitol Riot. Amid an attempt by Mr. Trump to keep personal records confidential and Stephen K. Bannon’s disregard of Congress charges, here is a breakdown of executive privileges:

What is the Executive Privilege? It is a power exercised by presidents under the constitution to prevent the other two branches of government from gaining access to certain internal information of the executive, particularly confidential communications concerning the president or his top officials.

What is Trump’s claim? Former President Trump has filed a lawsuit to block the disclosure of White House files related to his actions and communications related to the January 6th Capitol Riot. He argues that these matters must be kept secret under the privilege of the executive branch.

Are Trump’s Entitlement to Privileges Valid? The constitutional line between the secrecy powers of a president and the investigative authority of Congress is blurred. Although a judge rejected Trump’s offer to keep his papers secret, it is likely that the case will ultimately be decided by the Supreme Court.

Is the executive privilege an absolute power? No. Even a legitimate claim to executive privileges cannot always prevail in court. During the 1974 Watergate scandal, the Supreme Court upheld an order requiring President Richard M. Nixon to surrender his Oval Office tapes.

Are ex-presidents allowed to invoke the privileges of the executive branch? Yes, but courts can treat their claims with less respect than current presidents. In 1977 the Supreme Court said Nixon could invoke executive privilege in his absence, although the court eventually ruled against him on the case.

Is Steve Bannon eligible for Executive Privilege? This is unclear. The case of Mr Bannon could raise the new legal question of whether, or to what extent, a right to executive privileges can be extended to communication between a president and an informal adviser outside the government.

What is disregard for Congress? It is a sanction placed on those who defy the subpoenas of Congress. Congress can refer allegations of contempt to the Department of Justice and bring criminal charges. Bannon has been charged with disregard for refusing to comply with a subpoena that requires documents and testimony.

“American domestic democracy and global democracy abroad urgently need a strategy, an improvement, because both are facing a rapid recession,” said Ms. Kleinfeld. “But a summit is not a strategy. In fact, a summit was a distraction. “

Domestic issues are not the only potential cause of discomfort at the meeting, which will include remarks from Mr Biden, meetings with heads of state and more than a dozen events.

The administration was also faced with questions about their invitation criteria. Critics have questioned the inclusion of countries like the Philippines, which the State Department has condemned for extrajudicial killings, and Pakistan, which the United States has condemned of “enforced disappearances by the government or its agents;” Torture; and cases of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment by the government. “

Freedom House noted that Georgia suffered from the influence of oligarchs on its politics and news media, and that Nigeria, Africa’s largest democracy, had endemic corruption and allowed the harassment and arrest of journalists.

“I couldn’t have thrown a party like that,” says Ms. Kleinfeld about the “wide tent” of the invited guests.

Hungary and Turkey, which are NATO members, were not invited; Neither have there been any other countries that call themselves democracies but have repressions. Singapore was also left out, although Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III and Vice President Kamala Harris both traveled there this year to promote their ties with the United States as an ally in the South China Sea.

“The decision not to invite robust democracies like Singapore and Bhutan underscores that democracy is in the eye of the beholder,” said Curtis S. Chin, former US ambassador to the Asian Development Bank from 2007 to 2010.

Brazil, Latin America’s largest – but increasingly authoritarian – democracy, was also not invited; Egypt was still Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said this week that the invitations should not be treated as “a stamp of approval of their approach to democracy.”

“This is another opportunity not to celebrate all that we have done in the area of ​​democracy, for the United States or for all of these countries, and it’s closing time,” she said. “It’s an opportunity to keep trying to do better.”

Michael Wines contributed the reporting.