POLITICO NIGHTLY: Biden goes back to foreign policy school

 

BY RENUKA RAYASAM Presented by ANNOYED ALLIES — President Joe Biden’s pledges on Covid and climate change at the United Nations General Assembly meeting this week have done little to address criticism that the current president’s foreign policy is not all that different from former President Donald Trump’s ‘America first’ approach. Biden, who chaired the foreign relations committee as a senator, promised during his 2020 campaign to reset the country’s transatlantic relationship with Europe and to restore America’s position as a global leader. Yet the Biden administration has fractured the United States’ relationship with France by muscling into a submarine deal with Australia and faced intense international condemnation for its swift, unilateral withdrawal from Afghanistan. Nightly chatted with Ryan Heath, author of the Global Insider newsletter and host of the podcast of the same name, over Slack today about the U.S. place in the world after the first nine months of the Biden administration. This conversation has been edited. Biden wanted to reset America’s relationship with its allies. How’s he doing this week with that? It’s clear that most are relieved to not be dealing with Trump, but they’re increasingly frustrated with Biden: either at lack of consultation, or at the gap between his warm words alongside lack of delivery. President Joe Biden addresses the 76th Session of the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York. | Eduardo Munoz/Pool Photo via AP Any signs that Biden can turn things around with allies after a rocky few months? Biden’s in control of that. Only the very poorest countries need vaccine charity: The vast majority just want to buy them on the open market, for example. Europeans don’t get why there are still tariffs on their goods. There’s no obvious economic reason or political benefit for Biden from keeping them. Biden could flip those switches any day he wants. Didn’t Biden pitch himself as a foreign policy expert? To be fair, Biden doesn’t have it easy at home. Having virtually no ambassadors in place doesn’t help. That makes it harder to be effective abroad when issues like Covid and climate are politically polarized. There’s also a changing of the guard in many countries. There are plenty of national leaders now in their 30s. They weren’t even born when Biden was a beast in the Senate. Some of it is down to handling: I hear repeatedly from allies that they feel misled on Afghanistan; the French feel they were actively lied to on the sub deal. It’s not that hard to pick up the phone. Some of it is down to the rest of the world having more options than it did during the Cold War. The EU is bigger and stronger. China has a lot of cash to throw around. America carries the burden of being the world’s policeman and benefactor, but isn’t necessarily anyone’s automatic choice as best friend. After three administrations urging allies to be more independent and self-sustaining, D.C is now learning what it’s like for those allies to use that new power to push back. Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas for us at nightly@politico.com. Or contact tonight’s author at rrayasam@politico.com and on Twitter at @RenuRayasam. A message from Altria: Moving beyond smoking. Altria’s companies are leading the way in moving adult smokers away from cigarettes – by taking action to transition millions toward less harmful choices. We are investing in a diverse mix of businesses to broaden options beyond traditional, combustible cigarettes. See how we’re moving.   FROM THE AUDIO DESK ‘THE U.N. DOES ACTUALLY MATTER’— Ryan is capturing the madness of the UNGA this week, accompanied by his sidekick, producer Olivia Reingold, in the Global Insider podcast. Check it out Thursday to listen to his interview with Colombian president Iván Duque Márquez. Listen to his conversation earlier this week with his go-to “U.N. whisperer,” Richard Gowan of the Crisis Group. UNGA Dispatch 1: Covid precautions and fears dominate Day One WHAT'D I MISS? — FDA authorizes booster shot of Pfizer Covid vaccine: The Food and Drug Administration formally authorized a booster dose of Pfizer and BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine today for people 65 and older and those at high risk of severe illness because of underlying health conditions or “frequent institutional or occupational exposure.” — Fed signals plan to pull back economic support: The Federal Reserve signaled today it is on track to begin withdrawing some of its extraordinary support for the U.S. economy later this year, even though officials are more pessimistic about the outlook for growth and job creation as the resurgent coronavirus weighs on the country. Fully half of the Fed’s 18 policymakers penciled in the possibility of an interest rate hike next year. — Biden announces ‘partnership’ with EU on global vaccine distribution effort: Biden said the partnership will allow the EU and U.S. “to work more closely together” and that one of its bedrock principles will be committing to “donating, not selling” vaccine doses to less-affluent countries. He also made official his administration’s plan to purchase another 500 million vaccine doses to distribute to some of the world’s poorest nations, bringing the United States’ total commitment to 1.1 billion doses. — Powell vows to tighten Fed ethics rules after stock trading uproar: Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell pledged that the central bank will strengthen its ethics rules today after an outcry surrounding financial trades during the pandemic by two top policymakers. The trades by Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan and Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren have sparked calls by some progressive groups for their resignation and a push by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) to ban all trading on individual stocks by Fed officials. — Prosecutors to seek testimony of former Nevada AG in trial of Giuliani associate: Prosecutors plan to call former Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt — the frontrunner for the Republican nomination in a crucial 2022 Senate race — to testify in the upcoming criminal trial of Lev Parnas, an associate of Rudy Giuliani who became a central figure in the 2019 impeachment of Trump. — Trump sues niece, NYT over 2018 tax records investigation: Trump is suing The New York Times, three of its journalists and his niece, Mary Trump — alleging she violated the terms of a 2001 family settlement agreement by turning over some of his tax records to the newspaper for a 2018 article and by publishing a 2020 tell-all book that contained other confidential information.   TELL US WHAT YOU THINK: Do you listen to POLITICO podcasts? We want to hear from you! Tell us what you like, what you could do without, and what you want to see in the future from the POLITICO Audio team! Your responses will help us improve our offerings and tailor our podcast content to better fit your needs. Find the survey here.     ON THE HILL BIDEN AT HOME — Biden held a series of meetings with key Democrats today, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer as party leaders try to salvage their two-part domestic agenda — a massive social safety net expansion and bipartisan infrastructure bill — during a fresh round of hostage-taking from centrist and progressive members. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said during his meeting with Biden, the president told him, “Please, just work on it. Give me a number, and tell me what you can live with and what you can’t,” according to POLITICO’s Marianne LeVine. IRON DOME FUNDING FEUD — The top House Democrat on Appropriations introduced a bill today that would provide $1 billion for Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system, after the funding was abruptly pulled Tuesday from a government funding package. Democrats were forced to toss the money from a stopgap spending bill aimed at avoiding a government shutdown at the end of the month after objections from progressives. The incident, which temporarily derailed a vote on the continuing resolution, illustrated the long-simmering internal tensions within the party over supporting Israel, a longtime U.S. ally in the Middle East. Appropriations Chair Rosa DeLauro initially promised to include the funding in a year-end appropriations package, which would require lengthy bipartisan negotiations and isn’t guaranteed to materialize. But as more moderate Democrats called for the restoration of the funding, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer pledged to call for a vote later this week. POLICE REFORM TALKS CRUMBLE — The bipartisan police reform talks have officially collapsed after Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.) spent months trying to reach an agreement with little progress. The negotiators had moved their self-imposed deadline for coming to a deal several times, but the differences between both sides ultimately proved too vast. Among the key sticking points was reforming qualified immunity, which shields police officers from civil liability for misdeeds. Negotiators hit a stalemate on that provision and ultimately decided to take it off the table this summer. Instead, they focused on a “slimmed down” version of the legislation but even that proved too difficult.       NIGHTLY NUMBER More than $450 billion The amount of money the Congressional Budget Office estimates Pelosi’s drug pricing plan, which would direct the government to negotiate prices on a set number of high-cost drugs, could save over 10 years. Pfizer’s CEO sent a video message to company employees urging them to fight proposed government drug price negotiations and expressing frustration with Congress, which is considering using the projected savings to help pay for a $3.5 trillion social spending package.   JOIN THURSDAY FOR A WOMEN RULE CONVERSATION ON ENDING SEXUAL ASSAULT IN THE MILITARY: Sexual assault in the military has been an issue for years, and political leaders are taking steps to address it. Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) proposed bipartisan legislation to overhaul military sexual assault policies, but still face opposition. Join Women Rule for a virtual interview featuring Sens. Ernst and Gillibrand, who will discuss their legislative push and what it will take to end sexual assault and sexual harassment in the military. REGISTER HERE.     PARTING WORDS OPINION: THE DEBT CEILING DOOMSDAY CULT — An apocalyptic mood sweeps over the congressional press corps every couple of years as the federal government approaches its debt ceiling and representatives and senators meet to bicker over whether to raise the ceiling, temporarily suspend it or perform other legislative magic to finance the workings of the U.S. government, writes senior media writer Jack Shafer. Take, for example, this page one, above-the-fold lede from the Sept. 22 edition of the Washington Post, which all but unleashes the Seven Plagues on mankind and tosses the unbelievers into a lake of fire. If you were new to the subgenre of debt-ceiling journalism, the tone of this piece might be enough to encourage you to make like a doomsday prepper, liquidate your market positions and start stockpiling rations, batteries, water and weapons. Because it’s true that a default on the federal debt would fracture the economy and unleash a blood-dimmed tide over humanity — but it’s equally true that such a calamity has never happened, won’t happen this time and will likely never happen because members of Congress who love to play chicken never follow through. They always chicken out. The debt-ceiling squabble is ugly. It’s potentially perilous. And nerve-wracking for financial markets. But it’s not about to uncork a Book of Revelation-type cataclysm. We’ll muddle through as we always do. It’s only a matter of what the Democrats will surrender in order to bring peace back to the kingdom. Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here. A message from Altria: Moving beyond smoking. Altria’s companies are leading the way in moving adult smokers away from cigarettes. Today, we are taking action to transition millions toward less harmful choices. From cigarettes to innovative alternatives. By investing in a diverse mix of businesses, Altria is working to further broaden options. Our companies are encouraging adult smokers to transition to a range of choices that go beyond traditional, combustible cigarettes. From tobacco company to tobacco harm reduction company. And while Altria is moving forward to reduce harm, we are not moving alone. We are working closely with FDA and other regulatory bodies, and will work strictly under their framework. See how we’re moving.     Follow us on Twitter Renuka Rayasam @renurayasam Chris Suellentrop @suellentrop Tyler Weyant @tweyant Myah Ward @myahward   FOLLOW US

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