WASHINGTON (AP) – Less than two weeks in office, President Joe Biden is facing two critical tests to see whether the deadly riot at the US Capitol has damaged the United States’ position as a beacon for democracy.
Protests in Russia and a military coup in Myanmar come as American credibility on the world stage plummeted after the takeover of the Capitol last month by a pro-Donald Trump crowd seeking to prevent Biden’s election victory certification.
This adds weight to Biden as he seeks to fulfill a campaign promise to dramatically reposition the U.S. as a global leader after four years of a Trump foreign policy driven by an “America First” mantra. This policy was marked by the frequent discredit of democratic allies and the occasional embrace of authoritarian leaders.
Biden’s top diplomat, Antony Blinken, acknowledged the difficulty.
“I think there is no doubt that the attack on our own democracy on January 6 creates an even greater challenge for us to carry the flag of democracy and freedom and human rights around the world because, of course, people in other countries are saying to us, ‘Well, why don’t you look at yourself first?’ ”, Said the secretary of state in an interview with NBC News.
Blinken added: “The difference, however, between us and so many other countries is that when we are challenged, including when we challenge ourselves – we are doing it in broad daylight with full transparency.”
Biden, in the early days of his presidency, sought to send the message in a series of calls to foreign leaders that America is back.
He reassured Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga that the US has its support in an ongoing territorial dispute with China over islets in the East China Sea. He tried to restart the relationship with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who was dismissed by Trump as “dishonest and weak”. And he told Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador that the US would send $ 4 billion to help development in Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala – nations whose difficulties have generated waves of migration across Mexico towards the United States.
“The United States remains a country where leadership is sought,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters. “It will take some time, but he is certainly committed to doing that.”
But the crises in Myanmar and Russia present Biden with difficult tests of his promise to reestablish global leadership, which is likely to be much more complicated than fixing barriers with traditional allies.
Biden threatened on Monday with new sanctions against Myanmar after a coup that saw the military arrest its government’s civilian leaders, calling the episode “a direct attack on the country’s transition to democracy and the rule of law”.
In his first liaison with Russian President Vladimir Putin as counterparts last week, Biden expressed concerns about the arrest of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and the crackdown on supporters of his prison. Mass arrests have only accelerated in the days since the two leaders spoke, while protests continued across the country.
“For Putin, he looks at the Capitol rebellion and sees it as further evidence of his worldview, a continuation of the degradation of liberalism in the world,” said Michael McFaul, who served as the US ambassador to Russia in the Obama administration. “Biden’s election doesn’t mean much to him about his theory of liberal democracy. Whereas Putin’s opponents are very encouraged by the election of President Biden because it shows that American democratic institutions were resistant. “
To that end, Navalny’s supporters wrote to Biden over the weekend, urging him to take significant steps with sanctions against members of Putin’s inner circle to demonstrate that he is serious about claiming the US role as champion of democracy.
“Their argument is: if you sanction a bunch of unnamed, low-ranking colonels … that’s exactly what Putin is hoping for,” said McFaul. “They want the Biden government to sanction the economic actors in the Putin regime and have made it easier for the Biden government by naming them all in its seven-page letter.”
Congressman Adam Schiff, a California Democrat and chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, drew a line from Trump to the coup in Myanmar. Trump had made unfounded accusations of widespread electoral fraud that were rejected by several courts, as well as by Trump’s own Justice Department.
An ad read on Myawaddy TV, owned by the Myanmar military, explained that the seizure was necessary because the government failed to act on the groundless allegations of military fraud in the Southeast Asian country’s recent elections and because it allowed the election to continue despite of the coronavirus pandemic.
“When America speaks and acts, the world watches, and when our leaders propagate conspiracy theories and subvert democracy here at home, it sets a dangerous example for the rest of the world,” said Schiff.
Adversaries like China, Iran and Venezuela pointed to the Capitol disturbances as evidence of the fragility of the United States’ democracy. Even some allies said the scene was disturbing and made them reconsider the United States’ position as the self-proclaimed beacon of democracy.
“After something like this, I believe it would be very difficult for the world to see the United States as a symbol of democracy,” said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelinskiy, in an interview with “Axios on HBO”.
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The Associated Press writer Darlene Superville contributed to this report.