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President Joe Biden said he would host a “Summit for Democracy” during his first year in office to demonstrate that, together, democracies can deliver for the world.
But it looks like Biden won’t even be able to deliver the meeting on time.
According to multiple US officials, the Biden administration is thinking of pushing the summit into at least 2022, citing concerns about hosting a large, in-person meeting of world leaders during a pandemic and the optics of such an event. The summit isn’t even on the president’s calendar yet, two sources said.
“We have not yet announced a date for the Summit for Democracy, and I don’t have an update to share on that front, but we look forward to convening when the time is right,” a senior administration official told me.
The Week That Will Be
Event Announcements (More details on the Events Calendar)
Monday, May 10, 2021, at 3:00 p.m.: The House Administration Committee will hold a hearing titled, Oversight of the January 6th Attack: United States Capitol Police Threat Assessment and Counter-Surveillance Before and During the Attack. The committee will hear testimony from Michael Bolton, inspector general of the Capitol Police.
Tuesday, May 11, 2021, at 9:30 a.m.: The Senate Armed Services Committee will hold a hearing on the nominations of Ronald Moultrie to be undersecretary of defense for intelligence and security and Michael McCord to be comptroller of the Defense Department.
Tuesday, May 11, 2021, at 10:00 a.m.: The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution will hold a hearing on ghost guns. The committee will hear testimony from Michael Harrison, commissioner of the Baltimore Police Department; Joshua Shapiro, attorney general of Pennsylvania; Nicholas Suplina, managing directo
Then came an announcement that the so-called “Citgo 6” were being released from a Venezuelan prison to house arrest, a clear overture to U.S. officials who have long criticized Caracas’ 2017 detention on corruption charges of the six executives from Houston-based Citgo Petroleum a subsidiary of the Venezuelan state oil company.
The Biden administration was still analyzing the “Citgo 6” move when Mr. Maduro made headlines again by announcing that two stalwart members of Venezuela’s opposition including a formerly jailed activist would be allowed to fill seats on the country’s National Electoral Council.
“Maduro is trying to get Washington’s attention,” said Geoff Ramsey, who heads the Venezuela program at the Washington Office on Latin America. “The question is what can Washington give in return to induce even greater concessions from him?”
May 10, 2021
Several Democrats in Congress have criticized Israel over the ongoing violence occurring between Israelis and Palestinians in the country. Israel has responded to some of the criticism, and other Democratic and Republican lawmakers have conversely defended Israel.
The comments came from both newer, more progressive Democrats in the House and older, relatively moderate Democrats in the House and Senate. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts said the possible eviction of Palestinian families from Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, which partially sparked the current unrest, is “unacceptable.”
“The forced removal of long-time Palestinian residents in Sheikh Jarrah is abhorrent and unacceptable. The administration should make clear to the Israeli government that these evictions are illegal and must stop immediately,” said Warren in a tweet appealing to US President Joe Biden on Saturday.