WASHINGTON: The American commentariat across the political spectrum are unloading on US President Joe Biden for holding a Summit of Democracy, with the liberal set pillorying him for preaching to the world at a time democracy is in peril at home and pro-Trump ideologues charged with imperiling democracy accusing him of belittling America with the outreach.
The ideological firefight ignited amid new disclosures that former President Donald Trump aides had gone so far as to prepare a powerpoint presentation to overturn the November 2020 election results and stage what effectively would have been a coup to deny the presidency to Joe Biden.
The 38-page PowerPoint titled “Options for 6 JAN,” revealed in an email Trump’s White House chief of staff Mark Meadows turned over to a legislative committee this week, called on Trump to declare a national emergency and have vice-president Mike Pence delay Biden’s certification as the election winner.
The disclosures alarmed Democratic lawmakers, with California’s Eric Swalwell accusing Republicans of trying to overthrow the Biden government and warning, “We are in a battle for democracy. It’s on life support.” Some analysts saw Biden’s Summit for Democracy as a US foreign policy initiative that was conceived with a domestic political element in mind in the light of the January 6 events.
“When Biden talks about the battle between pro-democratic and pro-autocratic forces in the world, he is not just thinking about China and Russia but also about Donald Trump and his Republican Party’s systematic efforts to undercut democracy here,” the political scientist and commentator David Rothkopf wrote, warning that “if we continue down the path we are on without the reversals and protections we need, that this first Summit of Democracies may be the last one.”
“A Trumpian America would not and should not qualify for such an event. And the other democracies of the world should use their collective force to send that message and to enumerate the severe costs to the US of falling out of the club—just like those any other backslider or enemy of democracy would face,” he said.
Trump supporters had a completely different take, accusing Biden of holding the summit to further what they said was the Democratic Party’s agenda of subverting what they perceive as American culture being diluted by immigrants.
“They don’t like American voting laws, they don’t like American history, they want to rewrite our culture and completely change it… this is a guy who really doesn’t like America and who’s telling the rest of the world, ‘Oh, I’m so sorry for America and the way that it is. We should be different. If you let us have power long enough we’ll completely transform the country.’” Republican Senator Josh Hawley raged on Fox News, which primarily airs such conservative, nativist views.
The internal battle largely overshadowed Biden’s global outreach, even the event attracted flak for invitations to many leaders seen as authoritarian. China continued to take pleasure in US domestic strife, trolling the summit by invoking a Harry Potter character to sneer at Washington while extolling its own one-party system.
“Just as Voldemort went down an evil path, so has American-style democracy over time gradually changed and decayed,” the country state media tweeted.
The ideological firefight ignited amid new disclosures that former President Donald Trump aides had gone so far as to prepare a powerpoint presentation to overturn the November 2020 election results and stage what effectively would have been a coup to deny the presidency to Joe Biden.
The 38-page PowerPoint titled “Options for 6 JAN,” revealed in an email Trump’s White House chief of staff Mark Meadows turned over to a legislative committee this week, called on Trump to declare a national emergency and have vice-president Mike Pence delay Biden’s certification as the election winner.
The disclosures alarmed Democratic lawmakers, with California’s Eric Swalwell accusing Republicans of trying to overthrow the Biden government and warning, “We are in a battle for democracy. It’s on life support.” Some analysts saw Biden’s Summit for Democracy as a US foreign policy initiative that was conceived with a domestic political element in mind in the light of the January 6 events.
“When Biden talks about the battle between pro-democratic and pro-autocratic forces in the world, he is not just thinking about China and Russia but also about Donald Trump and his Republican Party’s systematic efforts to undercut democracy here,” the political scientist and commentator David Rothkopf wrote, warning that “if we continue down the path we are on without the reversals and protections we need, that this first Summit of Democracies may be the last one.”
“A Trumpian America would not and should not qualify for such an event. And the other democracies of the world should use their collective force to send that message and to enumerate the severe costs to the US of falling out of the club—just like those any other backslider or enemy of democracy would face,” he said.
Trump supporters had a completely different take, accusing Biden of holding the summit to further what they said was the Democratic Party’s agenda of subverting what they perceive as American culture being diluted by immigrants.
“They don’t like American voting laws, they don’t like American history, they want to rewrite our culture and completely change it… this is a guy who really doesn’t like America and who’s telling the rest of the world, ‘Oh, I’m so sorry for America and the way that it is. We should be different. If you let us have power long enough we’ll completely transform the country.’” Republican Senator Josh Hawley raged on Fox News, which primarily airs such conservative, nativist views.
The internal battle largely overshadowed Biden’s global outreach, even the event attracted flak for invitations to many leaders seen as authoritarian. China continued to take pleasure in US domestic strife, trolling the summit by invoking a Harry Potter character to sneer at Washington while extolling its own one-party system.
“Just as Voldemort went down an evil path, so has American-style democracy over time gradually changed and decayed,” the country state media tweeted.