June 16, 2021 (Wednesday)
The big story today is the meeting between President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Geneva, Switzerland. The event was carefully choreographed and left neither of them humiliated the way former president Trump was on July 16, 2018 in Helsinki, Finland, where he took Putin’s word over that of U.S. intelligence about Russian interference in the 2016 election (Trump’s Russia advisor Fiona Hill said recently she was so appalled during the joint press conference with Trump and Putin she thought about faking a medical emergency to interrupt it).
Biden refused a joint press conference, unwilling to give Putin a platform next to the U.S. president. (Critics note that even shaking Putin’s hand was a public relations victory for the Russian president before his country’s September elections.)
Biden’s goal was not to try to push Putin into that ubiquitous “reset” we’ve heard about since the administration of President George W. Bush; it was about establishing some rules of the road to promote stability going forward. “This is not about trust. This is about self-interest,” Biden said.
He warned Putin that the U.S. will no longer permit cyberattacks on critical infrastructure from either the Russian government or the hackers it shelters, and that it will respond to any further attacks on our democracy. "I made it clear that we will not tolerate attempts to violate our democratic sovereignty or destabilize our democratic elections, and we would respond," Biden said. He also made it clear that the U.S. will defend human rights. The two men began to talk about the issues involved as climate change opens sea lanes through the previously frozen Arctic Ocean.
Neither side expected any agreements to come from the meeting, but it was more productive than the initial low bar predicted. The two sides agreed to return their ambassadors to each other’s country and agreed to resume talks on nuclear weapons. “There has been no hostility,” Putin told reporters. “On the contrary, our meeting took place in a constructive spirit.” “We don’t have to look each other in the eye and soul and make pledges of eternal love and friendship,” Putin said. “We defend the interests of our countries and peoples, and our relations always have [a] primarily pragmatic character.”
"I told President Putin my agenda is not against Russia or anyone else, it's for the American people," Biden said. "I made it clear to President Putin that we'll continue to raise issues of fundamental human rights because that's who we are."
Skeptics note that this meeting took place while Putin holds his chief political opponent, Alexei Navalny, in prison on trumped-up charges and just after his government outlawed Navalny’s three political organizations. Since hackers based in Russia just recently shut down a major U.S. oil pipeline, Putin’s people might interpret Biden’s willingness to meet with him as acceptance of that behavior. But Biden thought a face to face meeting would be productive. "We'll find out within the next six months to a year whether or not we actually have a strategic dialogue that matters,” Biden said. "I did what I came to do."
What Biden accomplished in the past ten days was crucial. He reestablished friendly footing and cooperation between the U.S. and our allies at the G7 meeting and shored up the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, bringing the U.S. back into a leadership role there. He worked with the European Union on trade, extending the suspension of some of Trump’s tariffs and resolving a 17-year-old dispute over aircraft subsidies.
The U.S. and its allies pledged to supply vaccines to countries that don’t have them, combat climate change, create good jobs, empower women and girls, stand together against Russian aggression, and cooperate in the face of Chinese growth. Each public statement they released used Biden’s motto: “Build Back Better.”
What President Biden really did was to rally our allies behind a defense of democracy.
Yesterday, the U.S. and the E.U. issued a statement saying that they are “an anchor for democracy, peace, and security around the world,” and declared their commitment to protecting democratic governments. “We reject authoritarianism in all its forms around the globe, resisting autocrats’ efforts to create an environment that protects their rule and serves their interests, while undermining liberal democracies.”
Here at home, there was news, today too. The House passed legislation making a federal holiday of June 19th, known as Juneteenth, the day in 1865 that enslaved Americans in Galveston, Texas, heard an army officer confirm that they were free. Forty-eight states currently celebrate the day in some form. Fourteen Republicans voted against the measure; one suggested he feared it would introduce Critical Race Theory into schools. The Senate passed the bill unanimously on Tuesday. It will now go to President Biden for his signature.
YOU CAN ALWAYS DEPEND ON REPUBLICAN IGNORANCE!
Who are the 14 House Republicans who voted against a Juneteenth holiday? And why?
JUNE 16, 2021
- All 14 members of Congress who voted against making Juneteenth a federal holiday were Republicans.
- Rep. Thomas Massie argued calling Juneteenth a national independence day would confuse people.
- "We have enough federal holidays right now," said Rep. Ronny Jackson.
WASHINGTON — Legislation to recognize June 19, or "Juneteenth," as a federal holiday passed overwhelmingly in the House of Representatives Wednesday. The bill passed unanimously in the Senate on Tuesday.
Senate Bill 475, the "Juneteenth National Independence Day Act", passed with 415-14 votes. The bill recognizes June 19, 1865, the day enslaved people in Galveston, Texas learned slavery was ended, as a public holiday. President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation had freed all enslaved African Americans in rebel states two and a half years earlier.
The bill now heads to President Joe Biden's desk to be signed into law.
The 14 no votes were all from Republican members of Congress. They include:
- Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala.
- Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz.
- Rep. Scott DesJarlais, R-Tenn.
- Rep. Tom Tiffany, R-Wis.
- Rep. Doug LaMalfa, R-Calif.
- Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala.
- Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C.
- Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas
- Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz.
- Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif.
- Rep. Matt Rosendale, R-Mont.
- Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas
- Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky.
- Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga.
Several of those representatives shared why they were voting against the bill.
Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, told USA TODAY he thinks there are enough federal holidays.
"We have enough federal holidays right now. I just don't see the reason in doing it," he said. "I don't think it rises to the level I'm going to support it."
Republican Montana Rep. Matt Rosendale released a statement on his vote against S.B. 475.
“Let’s call an ace an ace. This is an effort by the Left to create a day out of whole cloth to celebrate identity politics as part of its larger efforts to make Critical Race Theory the reigning ideology of our country. Since I believe in treating everyone equally, regardless of race, and that we should be focused on what unites us rather than our differences, I will vote no,” Rosendale said.
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., argued that referring to Juneteenth as a national independence day would confuse people.
"I fully support creating a day to celebrate the abolition of slavery, a dark portion of our nation's history. However, naming this day 'national independence day' will create confusion and push Americans to pick one of those two days as their independence day based on their racial identity," Massie said on the House floor. "Why can't we name this 'emancipation day' and come together as Americans and celebrate that day together as Americans?"
Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, also objected to the name of the bill.
"Juneteenth should be commemorated as the expression of the realization of the end of slavery in the United States - and I commend those who worked for its passage," Roy said in a statement.
"I could not vote for this bill, however, because the holiday should not be called 'Juneteenth National Independence Day' but rather, 'Juneteenth National Emancipation [or Freedom or otherwise] Day.' This name needlessly divides our nation on a matter that should instead bring us together by creating a separate Independence Day based on the color of one’s skin," he said.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Rep. Andrew Clyde, the only member of the Georgia delegation to vote no, declined to answer a reporter's question about his vote.
Contributing: Savannah Behrmann
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