The NPR Politics Podcast - Amid Many Global Crises Biden Calls For Togetherness In First U.N. Address

Episode Date: September 21, 2021

In his first address to the United Nations General Assembly, President Biden emphasized the importance of global cooperation to combat the coronavirus and climate change. And he not so subtly critiqued China and authoritarianism. This episode: White House correspondent Asma Khalid, White House correspondent Ayesha Rascoe, and national political correspondent Mara Liasson.Connect:Subscribe to the NPR Politics Podcast here.Email the show at [e-mail] the NPR Politics Podcast Facebook Group.Listen to our playlist The NPR Politics Daily Workout.Subscribe to the NPR Politics Newsletter.Find and support your local public radio station.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Hi, this is Christina from Austin, Texas, and right now I'm just sitting on my couch with my dog George. George is very tired, but it's because he and I passed our therapy team test. He's now officially a therapy animal. This podcast was recorded at 2.33 p.m. Eastern Time on Tuesday, September 21st. Things may have changed by the time you listen to it, but hopefully George wakes up from this nap soon. All right, here's the show. Oh, good boy. Well, George needs to get some rest. Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm Asma Khalid. I cover the White House.

I'm Aisha Roscoe. I also cover the White House. And I'm Mara Liason, national political correspondent. Simply put, we stand, in my view, at an inflection point in history. President Biden delivered his first address to the United Nations General Assembly today, and it comes just weeks after the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, and as the U.S. struggles to contain the coronavirus and the climate crisis touches much of the world. And I'm here today to share with you how the United States intends to work with partners and allies to answer these questions. And the commitment of my new administration helped lead the world toward a more peaceful, prosperous future for all

people. So a lot here to discuss, but I just want to begin the conversation by asking both of you what your main impressions were of what you heard from President Biden today. It really was striking how even though right now the administration is facing a lot of challenges, whether the controversy over the way the U.S. left Afghanistan, now there's this thing where Paris is mad about this national security deal. It got left out of with Australia, dealt with a submarine contract. But like there are all these issues. But this address did not address that. It was basically an infomercial for the Biden vision of foreign policy and how he feels like the U.S. is doing well now in reaching out to others. And this is his view. The war is over and now it's time to move forward and the world should

work together. There was a disconnect between that and the reality, but he didn't address that. Yeah, I would just say that U.N. speeches by American presidents are infomercials for their foreign policy vision, and they're supposed to be. I love that description, by the way, infomercial. It's like the perfect word. And this is a speech that he could have written and given before the botched Afghanistan withdrawal, or before the United States, the UK and Australia pissed off France, when they decided that Australia should have nuclear powered submarines. But he did lay out his vision. He had a message of we're back at the table, as he said, you know, he reaffirmed NATO Article Five,

you know, that was something that Trump was always ambivalent about. And he said, we have a new strategy to take on evolving threats. That means China, even though he didn't say about. And he said, we have a new strategy to take on evolving threats. That means China, even though he didn't say that. And he repeated his commitment to alliances. Now, in the execution of this policy pivot, he has ticked off some of the allies. But I would say that over time, there's not really an alternative for them to the United States. As long as they don't want to spend more on their own defense, the United States continues to be the most important actor in the Western alliance. You know, I think it's worth taking a moment to just pause and contextualize this speech,

because it is not only President Biden's first address as president here to the United Nations, but it's also the first speech that he's giving after four years of the former president, Donald Trump, who took a very isolationist tone and really wanted to prioritize America over the extent of relationships with other countries. And I am curious, like, what your impression was of how the world is receiving and has received President Biden, right? Because I was going back and looking at President Trump's speech. I believe he gave it via video last year. And, you know, he emphasized the fact that you can get peace through military strength. President Biden today specifically talked about not using military power as a first resort,

but using it as a final resort. And do you get a sense that the world is, you know, perhaps grading President Biden on a curve because he comes after four years of Donald Trump? Well, sure. But the Western world held its breath during Donald Trump. And of course, Biden's approach is more welcomed, although his credibility has been tarnished by the execution of his policy to withdraw from Afghanistan. But as he said today, he said, we've ended 20 years of relentless war, and now we're going to start with relentless diplomacy. And as we close this period of relentless war, we're opening a new era of relentless diplomacy, of using the power of our development aid to invest in new ways of lifting people up around the world, of renewing and defending democracy, of proving that no matter how challenging

or how complex the problems we're going to face, government by and for the people is still the best way to deliver for all of our people. I think that's what the Western Alliance wants to hear. But there are a lot of challenges and a lot of differences that they have to resolve. How to deal with China? Do they want to be as confrontational as the United States seems to be? And that is, by the way, a policy that he has continued from the Trump administration. The Trump and Biden administrations both agreed that China was the biggest threat. How they handle China might be a little different, but there is continuity there.

Biden knows the words that the world leaders want to hear. He speaks that language. OK, so what's that, though, Ayesha? Like, what are those? Yeah, what is that language? Yeah, he speaks the language of saying we need to work together. I mean, there were points in it where it did really feel like the opposite of a Trump speech, because he was saying things like, yes, we need to look out for ourselves, but the only way we can all rise is we have to work together. Our security,

our prosperity, and our very freedoms are interconnected, in my view, as never before. And so I believe we must work together as never before. Whereas obviously Trump was saying, America first, we're going to look out for our interests. You look out for your interests. We're going to look out for us. And if it work out where we can work together, cool, but that's not our top priority. But like Mara said, they don't have really any place else to go. You know, Mara, you were mentioning earlier that the way the president withdrew from Afghanistan raises questions about his credibility on the world stage. Do you see the fact that the withdrawal from Afghanistan affecting, I guess, his ability to work on other huge global priorities? You know, I'm thinking addressing climate change, right into the pandemic, like,

does this question of credibility factor into other big global leadership roles he intends to take on? Well, I think, you know, overall, it doesn't help. But it's not going to be the thing that is the big obstacle to addressing climate change. That obstacle existed way before he decided to pull out of Afghanistan. And that's the lack of political will in these countries, or the lack of Biden's ability to pass his big climate change program through Congress. on COVID, he made sure not to show up at the UN until he had announced that the United States was open to vaccinated European travelers, which Europe has been waiting and waiting and waiting on. So I think there are many opportunities for him to work together with our allies. But these problems are hugely difficult to come to agreement on, not just because Biden botched the withdrawal from Afghanistan. All right, we are going to take a quick break. And when we get back,

we'll talk more about the United States and China. And we're back. And today, when President Biden spoke at the UN in New York, he threw some presidential shade. The future will belong to those who give their people the ability to breathe free, not those who seek to suffocate their people with an iron hand. Authoritarianism, the authoritarianism of the world, may seek to proclaim the end of the age of democracy, but they're wrong. Yeah, I mean, it was clear that Biden was talking about China. And the thing of it is that in the last administration, Trump called out China. He had no problem doing that. Yes. But in this case, he was trying to say that, yes, there is a division. Yes, there is competition. But he was trying to not be as aggressive, I guess, as Trump was.

And also trying to say that there's a way that the countries can work together on certain things where their interests overlap, because the U.S. is going to have to work with China on things like climate change and COVID and stuff like that. They're going to have to work together on certain issues. But obviously, there is a divide. You know, what struck me, this is something that Biden has been talking about since he started his campaign for president. And he sees the big challenge of our time is whether democracies can deliver and to show that they can improve the lives of their people better than the authoritarian states can, because authoritarianism is very efficient. It doesn't have to wait for 60 votes in the Senate to pass something. And that's where Biden's hit to his own credibility and the

problems he's had with execution come in, because he has said that the challenge for democracies is to show they can deliver. So they have to deliver at home, he has to pass his agenda, they have to deliver abroad, he has to be able to work with the allies on things like climate change and COVID vaccines. And, you know, this is a recurring theme for him. And I think the challenge got a little steeper in the past couple of weeks. You know, earlier this week, the UN Secretary General gave an interview to the Associated Press where he gave some warnings that he was concerned about a possible new Cold War developing between the United States and China. Today,

President Biden directly addressed that. But we're not seeking, say it again, we are not seeking a new Cold War or a world divided into rigid blocks. The United States is ready to work with any nation that steps up and pursues peaceful resolution to shared challenges, even if we have intense disagreements in other areas. You know, Mara, it does feel clear to me, though, that whether or not he is defining this as a cold war, the United States certainly is reorienting its foreign policy to focus on China. It certainly sees China as its primary competition. You know, when the G7 got together, there was a whole big economic package that all of these countries were working

on to essentially counter the one road, one belt initiative that China has, right? So it's like an economic competition. I don't think that's a cold war. I mean, there's no doubt that China is the number two superpower, and it's soon to become the number one economy in the world. The United States is beefing up its defense posture in the Indo-Pacific. It's trying to counter China's Belt and Road Initiative around the world, which, by the way, is not succeeding everywhere. China has its problems too. But that doesn't mean we're in a new Cold War like the one we had with Russia, where we were at war with Russia in every way except for open

hostilities, army against army. I don't think that's what we're going to see. But we might see the world divided into rigid blocks. I mean, there's a lot of ways that the US and China can decouple, but there are also a lot of ways that they can't. They're intricately linked together. And that's what makes these challenges harder. And even though Biden said that he didn't want to divide the world into, you know, two blocks, he also did kind of use the speech to praise countries that he felt like were doing good, and to call out those countries that he, you know, he felt like are authoritarian and are not doing well. And he has talked about how really the competition for the U.S. is whether, like we've talked about, whether democracy and democratic ideas are the ones that, you know, that is the future or whether it is authoritarianism. And he said he's firmly against that. Like he's not agnostic on that he said

this is where the world needs to go towards the democracy it just can't be done at you know the down the barrel of a gun it can't be done through the military but that idea he says needs to win out so you know it's in some ways it is a bit of a mixed message. All right. Well, we are going to leave it there for today. We'll be back in your feeds tomorrow. I'm Asma Khalid. I cover the White House. I'm Ayesha Roscoe. I also cover the White House.

And I'm Mara Liason, national political correspondent. And thank you all, as always, for listening to the NPR Politics Podcast.