U.S. role as democracy's champion battered by assault on Capitol
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[January 08, 2021]
By Arshad Mohammed and Jonathan Landay
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States
will find it harder to advocate for democracy and rule of law abroad
after the assault on the U.S. Capitol unless it grapples with President
Donald Trump's role in the violence, current and former U.S. diplomats
said.
After a rally where the president exhorted them to fight to overturn the
Nov. 3 U.S. election that he lost, hundreds of Trump supporters stormed
the Capitol on Wednesday, forcing legislators to evacuate as they
smashed windows and looted.
Scenes of lawmakers cowering and police officers with guns drawn seeking
to protect them undercut the image Washington has long projected as a
champion of democracy despite its past interference in the politics of
nations such as Guatemala, Iran and South Vietnam.
In a memo to staff on Thursday, a senior State Department official said,
"As voices around the world attempt to use yesterday's events to
discredit our efforts to defend democracy and human rights abroad, we
must firmly reject that view."
"Political leaders from across the spectrum in our country unequivocally
denounced the violence yesterday," Michael Kozak, the acting assistant
secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, wrote in the memo,
which was read to Reuters.
"The thugs who overran Congress" did not keep it from certifying that
Democrat Joe Biden defeated Trump, Kozak said, adding that the
Republican president "affirmed that our nation will have an orderly
transition to a new administration on Jan. 20."
Serving and former U.S. diplomats, however, said the note put the best
face on events and failed to address what they saw as Trump's incitement
of the violence, his initial failure to condemn it, and his repeated
false assertions of victory.
"This was an undemocratic assault against one of the citadels ... of our
democracy promoted by people who sent them up there, like the president
of the United States, his lawyer and his son making incendiary
statements," a senior U.S. diplomat said, speaking on condition of
anonymity.
"It's not just the assault of the mob. It's what preceded it, what
caused it," he added. "We have to be honest about this ... not just
repeat the standard talking points."
A former senior U.S. diplomat said Washington's ability to convince
others of the virtues of democracy rested, in part, on embodying them
itself. "It was easier to do that a week ago than it is today," the
former diplomat said.
Asked to comment on the memo, and on the views of the current and former
diplomats, a State Department spokesperson said: "We do not comment on
purportedly leaked internal communications."
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An explosion caused by a police munition is seen while supporters of
U.S. President Donald Trump gather in front of the U.S. Capitol
Building in Washington, U.S., January 6, 2021. REUTERS/Leah
Millis/File Photo
After claiming Thursday morning that the election was stolen, Trump
on Thursday evening acknowledged that Biden will be the next
president and called the attack "heinous." A day earlier, in a video
taped in the White House Rose Garden and posted on Twitter as
protesters stormed the Capitol, Trump told them to "go home,"
adding, "...we love you, you're very special."
Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, said foreign
leaders such as Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese
President Xi Jinping would exploit the assault on the Capitol to
assert the superiority of their autocratic systems.
"Putin and Xi Jinping push the supposed stability of their
dictatorships over the messiness of democracy," he said. "What
happened yesterday is going to be Exhibit A in their case for a long
time."
In fact, China's state media, in editorials on Friday, said the
storming of the U.S. Capital reflected a failure of leadership, with
the Global Times calling it a sign of "internal collapse" in the
U.S. political system.
Roth, along with the serving and former U.S. diplomats, argued that
a key test for the United States would be how it handles Trump's
actions and whether he is held accountable or punished.
"Our message to the world has never been that we're perfect. It's
that we have a system that is capable of correcting its
imperfections," said Democratic Representative Tom Malinowski.
A former top U.S. human rights diplomat, Malinowski said he
supported impeaching Trump "precisely because we need to show the
American people, first and foremost, but also the rest of the world
that nobody in this country is above the law."
(Reporting by Arshad Mohammed and Jonathan Landay; Additional
reporting by Humeyra Pamuk; Writing by Arshad Mohammed; Editing by
Mary Milliken and Leslie Adler)
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