June 16, 2021

President Biden issued a stark warning about the anti-democratic forces hammering away at home and abroad. On the tarmac, before boarding his plane to come home after his first foreign trip as president, he aptly characterized the reasoning for Russia's need for legitimacy.

"Russia is in a very, very difficult spot. They are being squeezed by China. They want desperately to remain a major power....They desperately want to be relevant," Pres. Biden told the press corp. "It matters. I found it matters almost to every world leader, no matter where they're from, how they're perceived, their standing in the world. It matters to them. It matters to them in terms of their support at home as well."

He continued, "I am of the view that in the last three to five years, the world has reached a fundamental inflection point about what it's gonna look like 10 years from now. I mean it literally....each of the countries around the world, particularly those who had real power at one time, and still do, are wondering, 'How do I maintain and sustain our leadership in the world?"

As always, Pres. Biden included self-reflection, reminding reporters of the grave dangers at home. He refused to let anyone off the hook, or god-forbid, forget, that Trump induced and encouraged insurrection against our own Capitol.

"That's what the United States is going through right now. How do we sustain being the leading, most powerful, and most democratic country in the world? A lot's going on. I don't know about you, I never anticipated, notwithstanding no matter how persuasive president Trump was, that we would have people attacking and breaking down the doors of the United States Capitol. I didn't think that would happen," he said.

Then Biden insisted the assault on voting rights is the worst it's ever been since the Civil War. "[E]very generation has to reestablish the basis in this fight for democracy. I mean, for real. You literally have to do it. I've never seen, including since the Civil War, such an outward assault on voting rights. Just a flat assault. I didn't anticipate that happening four years ago, but it's happening now."

Before he boarded his plane for the end of his first foreign trip, though, he made a promise. "There's a lot at stake. Each of the countries, we have our own concerns and problems,, but as long as I'm president, we are only going to stick to the notion that we're open, accountable and transparent. I think that's an important message to send the world. Thank you all for taking the time."

Openness, accountability, and transparency. What a breath of fresh air after four years of fascism. And I don't ever want to hear people saying that Democrats are weak in the face of these neo-Nazi forces festering in our own backyards. Biden, on foreign soil, is taking the time to remind us.

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