The NPR Politics Podcast - Senate Insurrection Report And Biden's First Trip Abroad

Episode Date: June 8, 2021

A bipartisan Senate investigation found that police had more alarming intelligence ahead of the Jan. 6 attack than previously documented. And the president is off to Europe this week. He will attempt to reassure leaders that the U.S. is a reliable partner and an important ally against China and Russia.This episode: politics, demographics, and culture reporter Danielle Kurtzleben, White House correspondent Franco Ordoñez, and congressional correspondent Claudia Grisales.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

So they say politics podcast. This is Victoria Kalman, and I'm a language teacher in Philadelphia. My amazing students just greeted you in Latin. This podcast was recorded at 2.06 p.m. on Tuesday, June 8th. Things may have changed by the time you hear this, but my Latin and Spanish students will have taken their final language exams of the year. I'm so proud of them and their hard work learning during the pandemic this year. Okay, here's the show. Wow. Muy bien. Felicitaciones. I couldn't say that in Latin, though. Forget it. She said they're Latin and Spanish, so jump in there. They're related.

All right. Hey, there. It is the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm Danielle Kurtzleben. I cover demographics and culture. I'm Claudia Grisales. I cover Congress. And I'm Frank Ordonez. I cover the White House. All right.

We have two big topics to cover. We are going to start with you, Claudia, because we are going to start with what is going on on Capitol Hill. The Senate is out this morning with a more than 100-page report about the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol. Let's start with sort of a weird way of getting at it. Let's talk about what this report is not, which is it's not the big bipartisan commission report that some had hoped for. That failed last month after a Republican filibuster blocked a plan to create that commission. So very quickly, Claudia,

what happened there? So that's interesting. We asked members of the committee, reporters had a call with them last night, as well as staffers. And they said this was just the scope in terms of limiting it away from the motivations of Trump, former President Donald Trump, and those supporters who were there that day. That said, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer took to the floor today and said it was Republicans who blocked a look into the role that Trump may have played that day and why it may have incited this attack that day. And so those are details that we did not get. And yes, it highlights the need Democrats like Schumer and others say for a commission. So then if that's what the report is not, then what exactly was in this and how does it differ from what that kind of commission might have done?

So in terms of how it would differ, it doesn't have that bipartisan subpoena power that is a game changer when it comes to these probes. For example, the Justice and Homeland Security Departments only provided partial answers to all of the committee's inquiries so that in and of itself is an example of the limits they face. That said, they did find more details about the alarming clues that police and other agencies had before January 6th, much before in some cases, more than a couple of weeks, for example, on December 21st, one of the agency's intelligence units, this is the lead intel unit for Capitol Police, issued a seven-page analysis report on December 21, highlighting a block site for supporters of former President Trump. And it talked about bringing guns. It's now or never, blocking off entrances, sharing maps of the Capitol complex, and talking about the tunnels. Claudia, what else was in the report?

So in one case, a Capitol Police official received a tip from the FBI on the eve of the siege. There was a significant uptick in traffic to a website called WashingtonTunnels.com. So that was part of the concern that there was so much more plotting and planning ahead of that day. But at the same time, the Capitol Police issued a statement today acknowledging improvements must be made, but also highlighting the fact that the FBI nor Homeland Security issued a threat analysis report or bulletin elevating these kinds of concerns. So Claudia, to sort of sum this up, it sounds like, yes, there was some information out there about what was being planned. Yes, some people in the

government, in law enforcement, did know about it. But it sounds like there were multiple failure points that perhaps there could have been better communication, that maybe they could have paid better attention. I don't know. What is the upshot of this report? Yeah, this report basically gives us a fuller picture of the best bipartisan investigation to date, if you will, of what happened that day and the multiple levels of failures, whether it comes to leadership failures for Capitol Police, whether it comes to communication issues of alerts that were not relayed to those who were trapped in the Capitol that day, to the treatment of officers and the lack of communication and lack of equipment that they had that day, to these intelligence failures that we see all around from the FBI to Capitol Police and how that was mishandled,

to the response, that delay in that response with the National Guard. It just one upon another is stacked in terms of all the weaknesses that were exposed that day. Before we move on, let's look ahead to the future. As you reported on this report, one of the senators involved in releasing it, Democrat Amy Klobuchar from Minnesota, she said, quote, this is the beginning of what I believe needs to be intense oversight of what's going on here. All of these things we raised will be the subject of questions. So should we expect more investigations into January 6th? Should we expect meaningful changes to come from this report as well?

Yeah, I think we should expect several meaningful changes, especially because it is bipartisan. It gives it that weight for the Senate to move forward. For example, Klobuchar herself and the ranking Republican on the Rules Committee are both going to sponsor legislation to allow the Capitol Police chief to call for emergency backup without having to seek additional approval. That's kind of what slowed down the response that day. Also, this could provide the foundation for a security supplemental funding measure that would bolster Capitol Police. The House passed their own version, a $1.9 billion proposal, but the Senate has yet to respond. They're going to use this to jumpstart those talks and potentially come to an agreement. Meanwhile, House Democrats,

such as Benny Thompson, this is the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said that he agrees with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that if no progress is made on the commission, the House should act with their own bipartisan investigation. This could be a select committee or additional probes in the House. You know, Claudia, I mean, it just, it makes me think back to 9-11 and the commission report that came out of there. I mean, the politics are just so different today. I mean, what do you make of that? And what has changed? Well, it is a reminder of how high these partisan tensions are on Capitol Hill in the wake of the Trump presidency. But at the same time, that 9-11 commission wasn't put together until about a year after that attack. And their

report was not issued until about three years after the attack. So they are trying to move a lot quicker here. So there is the possibility there could be a meeting of the minds later. The Senate only fell a few votes short to passing that commission. And Schumer says he wants to try again. So it's possible we could see another attempt at this. All right. Well, we're going to leave it there and we're going to take a quick break. And when we get back, we will talk about Joe Biden's first foreign trip as president.

What happens to police officers who get caught stealing, lying, or tampering with evidence? Each week, we open up an internal affairs investigation that used to be secret to find out how well the police police themselves. Listen to On Our Watch, a podcast from NPR and KQED. And we are back and we are talking Eurotrip, Joe Biden edition. Not the 2004 movie that we all know and love. That's where my mind goes. Now, this is the first international trip of Joe Biden's presidency. And Franco, you have been reporting on this.

You reported for NPR.org. He has a really packed schedule. He's going to Brussels, the UK. What all is he trying to accomplish with this trip? Yeah, a lot. I mean, this is the first time that world leaders are getting together in the same room since the beginning of the pandemic. Biden says he wants, you know, the G7 countries, the group of seven countries that are meeting in the UK, to share more COVID vaccines with poor countries. But, you know, there's really so much to talk about as they really try to, you know,

chart a way out of an economic hit from the pandemic, distributing these vaccines around Afghanistan. And he wants to get allies on his side in terms of, you know, kind of confronting China and Russia. You know, I've seen some reporting of European officials talking about their excitement over having Biden as a partner after Trump, Biden being more interested in multilateralism than Trump was. But a thing that I always wonder around these trips is, don't Europeans have whiplash from dealing with the U.S., given that every successive president has their own agenda, their own feelings about climate change, international trade, the Paris deal, the Iran deal, etc. And how does that end up playing out in these trips when presidents take them?

You know, that's right. I mean, it really is. I mean, it causes a lot of concern. I mean, European leaders see and understand how divided the country is right now, the United States, that is. And it's not just, you know, it's not just Trump. It's not just the personality of Trump. But, you know, they know that there's tens of millions of people who voted for Trump. concerns that European leaders have as well. In his joint address to Congress, he said he had spoken with dozens of leaders, and he said the biggest thing that they said to him was, great, America is back, but for how long? So, you know, this is a huge test for the administration to show that they have some staying power. Now, Jake Sullivan, he's the White House National Security Advisor, he said yesterday that basically America can lead by example. It can rally others by showing how successful it can be on key issues such as the pandemic, climate change, the economy. But, you know, these leaders are watching the polls. They

are watching. They will be watching the midterms. And they want to know whether Biden can succeed or not, because ultimately they don't know whether he'll be around in four years or who will be around in four years. So, Franco, can you talk a little bit about the reception Biden could have during this trip? Yeah, I think it's going to be much different than the reception that Trump had. I mean, under Trump, you know, there were some very rocky times with the Europeans, so many public insults. Trump frequently attacked leaders, including Canada's Justin Trudeau and Germany's Angela Merkel. You know, you guys may remember that famous photo taken at the G7 of Merkel and other leaders kind of looming over Trump and arguing

with him. It kind of became a meme of how Europeans felt about Trump. But as experts have told me, Biden will, you know, likely be received more like a rock star, though, instead of mocked, as former President Donald Trump was. This is going to be something that is going to be a big part of that trip. And it's not just symbolism, as people said. Because of those kind of reservations that we talked about before,

that unease that Europeans have, you know, that comfort level will be important because he's really got to build and bridge those gaps that exist still. Yeah, it seems like this could also set a bit of a political test for Biden kind of going forward in these relationships as well. Yeah, there's no question about it. I mean, President Biden is not only going to be speaking to European leaders, he's also going to be sending a message back home. I mean, one of President Biden's big initiatives was that he was going to develop the foreign policy work was being done for them. Many experts feel it's kind of a version of Trump's America First, you know, but without the isolationism and nationalism. So this is a major test, and it is definitely a political test for Biden as he goes into. These are big meetings and there's a

lot at stake. So, Franco, we should say before we end things, this is all under the shadow of the meeting that Biden will have next week with Vladimir Putin of Russia. We're going to get much more into that meeting in a later podcast episode. But for now, give us a sense of the stakes of this meeting. Yeah, I mean, it is a big deal. I mean, that future meeting with Putin at the end of the trip is really going to color the first week of talks with European leaders, particularly in Brussels at NATO. Russia is a huge issue for Europe. They are very concerned about Russian aggression of Ukraine, of some of the

cyber attacks, of election meddling. And as this was explained to me, this is actually also kind of an opportunity for Biden to build more support from European leaders who have these similar concerns about Russia. The White House said earlier this week that there will be a joint statement with European leaders pushing back on Russian aggressions. They expect it to be very strong. But I was also told by experts that they also got to really be careful to strike a balance. Biden has said he wants a more predictable relationship with Russia, and they got to be careful. That is, the NATO leaders need to be careful not to go too far, or else they could give Putin some incentive in Geneva not to come in and say, hey, let's find some ways to work. He can end up being a spoiler, as he has in the past.

All right. Well, a lot of complicated forces at work. We will keep our eye on those. But for now, we're going to leave it there. I am Danielle Kurtzleben. I cover demographics and culture. I'm Claudia Grisales. I cover Congress. And I'm Franco Ordonez. I cover the White House. And thank you for listening to the NPR Politics Podcast.