(The Guardian) As a lightning storm that would kill three people right in front of the White House thundered outside, Joe Biden was holding a meeting last week with historians who delivered the president a warning: both in the United States and abroad, democracy is in jeopardy.
According to The Washington Post, the Biden administration has previously held several such sit-downs with outside experts on the challenges it faces, including Russia’s invasion plans for Ukraine. While the Post didn’t get too many details about the exchanges in this latest meeting, they report that if Biden runs again in 2024, he will play up the “battle for the soul of the nation” theme that he used successfully in his 2020 run.
The meeting wasn’t confined to the situation in the United States, but the Post reports that many of the participants pointed to governance calamities like the January 6 attack on the US Capitol and former president Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election as major warning signs for the country going forward: One person familiar with the exchange said the conversation was mostly a way for Biden to hear and think about the larger context in which his tenure is unfolding. He did not make any major pronouncements or discuss his plans for the future. “A lot of the conversation was about the larger context of the contest between democratic values and institutions and the trends toward autocracy globally,” the person said.
Most of the experts in attendance have been outspoken in recent months about the threat they see to the American democratic project, after the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, the continued denial by some Republicans of the 2020 election results and the efforts of election deniers to seek state office.
According to The Washington Post, the Biden administration has previously held several such sit-downs with outside experts on the challenges it faces, including Russia’s invasion plans for Ukraine. While the Post didn’t get too many details about the exchanges in this latest meeting, they report that if Biden runs again in 2024, he will play up the “battle for the soul of the nation” theme that he used successfully in his 2020 run.
The meeting wasn’t confined to the situation in the United States, but the Post reports that many of the participants pointed to governance calamities like the January 6 attack on the US Capitol and former president Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election as major warning signs for the country going forward: One person familiar with the exchange said the conversation was mostly a way for Biden to hear and think about the larger context in which his tenure is unfolding. He did not make any major pronouncements or discuss his plans for the future. “A lot of the conversation was about the larger context of the contest between democratic values and institutions and the trends toward autocracy globally,” the person said.
Most of the experts in attendance have been outspoken in recent months about the threat they see to the American democratic project, after the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, the continued denial by some Republicans of the 2020 election results and the efforts of election deniers to seek state office.
