Michael, we know at least 25 heads of state are
in attendance for these events today,
including Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky.
Relations between the US and Ukraine are definitely at a
delicate point right now.
President Biden also dealing with divisions among the Western alliance,
particularly over the war in Gaza.
Talk to us about the significance of today from a
diplomacy standpoint.
Yeah, that's right. And by the way,
this underscores that for a president who is headed into
a reelection,
the degree to which foreign policy has come to dominate
his presidency.
You know, when he came into office,
he had a set of huge domestic issues,
obviously starting with
getting America to recover from the coronavirus and getting the
American economy back on track.
And now you see how much of his time is
consumed with these foreign policy
crises. I guess they've been going on for so long
now we can't even call them crises.
But the diplomacy will be very important to shore up
allies for Ukraine.
Of course, there's a lot of uncertainty because of that
election as to what the fate of Ukraine might be,
the fate of Western support because of the possibility that
Donald Trump will be coming to office
and then trying to hold
some kind of a consensus together
on Israel and Gaza and how to solve that problem.
That's a really tricky one.
I think a lot is going to depend in the
coming days on how President Biden's
appeal for
a new hostage deal and ceasefire plays out.
And he will be trying to
get opinions on that subject and try to
hold nations together behind you.
the US position on that,
Doug, there's reporting from Politico that President Biden is really
looking to Reagan as he prepares to deliver another major
speech in France tomorrow,
with aides conceding that they have studied the Reagan trip
closely from
1984. And they're looking to similarly capture the attention of
a distracted dissolution public and remind them of how much
is at stake.
How can the president best channel Reagan in this moment?
Well, I'm I'm here in Southern California.
We're doing AD day event at the Reagan Library.
Ronald Reagan in in June
6th, 1984 did a dramatic trip to the cliffs of
of Normandy,
most specifically point to hawk and he gave this remarkable
speech
talking about in World War 2,
the liberation of Western Europe,
the need to proceed further in Eastern Europe,
but mainly about the valor of the men who died
at
Utah and Normandy and the rest.
And also a moment Reagan really talked about allied
toughness and strength, particularly Canada
and Great Britain and France.
So you're seeing Reagan and
echoing with Joe Biden. He wants this to be
a kind of moment that people will say,
you know, Biden had a good trip there.
People that care about World War Two,
care about our veterans may start leaning forward and and
reimagine editing Biden as second term president,
showing off his statesman credentials.
This helps us French relations.
It's almost become a an annual event of some kind
where to remind ourselves of that great long friendship we've
had.
But with Michael pinpointed, I mean,
really that what we're all looking at is can there
be some breakthrough on on the Ukraine right now?
What about the Middle East?
What about Indo Pacific technology?
What about climate change? It becomes a summit.
First it's World War 2 memorial,
then it becomes a southern of
a summit of great magnitude for a President Biden,
who really is liked by our NATO allies,
has expanded NATO to include new countries.
But alas, there's there's a feeling of dread in doom
in Europe
due to the wars. That's right.
And President Biden himself was alive when allied forces fought
against Hitler.
Now he's leading this coalition of Western and European nations
against the aggression of Russia.
I can't help but just wonder,
are we seeing history repeat itself?
Doug, what's your perspective?
Well, and I don't know if it's quite repeating itself,
but it's, it's looking to have some similar atmospherics at
the very least
the it's usually a moment,
you know, in, in past
commemorations, Russia would often be there at,
at Utah and and Omaha,
meaning Russia lost millions in,
in World War Two and we're part of
this commemoration. And now, of course,
they're not allowing Putin there,
nor should they because he is acting in a grievous
dictatorial fashion
and the way he's
launched war on Ukraine. So I I were looking for
one big take away.
I mean, when Reagan win,
it was about continuing to win the Cold War Pope
John Paul the second,
Maggie Thatcher, Chancellor Cole and all.
There was this notion of a generation that of democracy
on the March in Europe on now it's about populist
strong arm,
right wing authoritarianism,
you know, lurching forward. And so it is a new
threat.
It is a new kind of authoritarian threat.
And you have to be careful when you echo World
War 2 with Hitler,
you'll see Biden not being very cautious about that.
But he's not cautious about saying,
you know, we're we have to learn to treasure what
a democracy is and fight for it.
And in that way, he's taking a page out of
FDR's famous prayer to the nation at the original June
6, 1944. We're looking at some images right now for
another ceremony that's about to get underway.
This is the international ceremony hosted by President Macron,
expected to be in French.
President Biden not expected to speak here.
But there will be a lot of pomp and circumstance.
You can see all these other world leaders and representatives
from countries including we just saw a moment ago,
Prince William is there among them.
There's Zolensky, the president of Ukraine.
There will be NATO ships off the coast,
flyovers of World War Two era aircraft,
presentation of the Medal of Legion.
So that's what we are looking at as we continue
this discussion.
And Michael, as Doug mentioned,
President Putin of Russia is not in attendance,
even though in the past Russian leaders have been there.
Yesterday, Putin said this about the recent conviction of former
President Trump.
The US is, quote, burning themselves from the inside,
their state, their political system,
and that the conviction is simply using the judicial system
in an internal political struggle.
We know Russia has tried to interfere with the US
before,
spreading misinformation. What do you make of Putin's comments there?
And just how closely is Russia watching the US election?
Oh, extremely closely, extremely closely.
And, you know, I think that there's real concern that
there could be significant Russian
efforts to influence the election.
And, you know, this is what Putin does.
He's he's pretty careful not to come out and say,
I want Donald Trump to win,
I prefer Donald Trump. In fact,
I think at one point recently he claimed that he
preferred Biden because he said that Biden was a known
quantity.
I don't think people really believe that.
But what he does do and what the Russians are
very good at is sort of undermining the American system
writ large.
So you see an example there of him
suggesting that our democratic system in society,
you know, is rotten. It doesn't work.
We often hold up democracy and the system that we
put together as a,
you know, as as as a proper
and and noble alternative to the sort of authoritarian system
that he supports.
And what Putin will do and the Chinese do this
and other countries do this is say that,
you know, the Americans are deluded,
their systems just as rotten as ours.
They just pretend that it's better,
pretend that it's more pure,
but it's not. So that's very consistent.
And you know, by the way,
just on a historical note,
although I'm not the historian on this show,
you know, the Russians, World War Two is is a
very,
very important part of Russian identity.
And Russians believe essentially that,
you know, they were the victors in World War Two.
I mean, they that they did the the bulk of
the fighting against the Nazis,
that they suffered the blow of a Nazi invasion.
And although they didn't participate in D-Day,
I'm sure it's frustrating for Putin to be watching from
afar
as the Western countries celebrate an event like this and
and present themselves as the
saviors of the world from Nazism.
Because another extremely common theme in Russian sort of propaganda
and rhetoric is this idea that Russia saved the world
from fascism and they they continue to be obsessed with
fascism. You in fact, you see Putin falsely claiming that
the Ukrainians essentially are reviving Nazism and fascism.
So there's sort of an interesting historical dynamic there as
well.