Good for the United States. Every country surveyed thinks china had a better response to the pandemic. What we have seen is that can be countries that dont have checks and balances. I want to know does the pandemic make you an optimist or pessimist for u. S. Global leadership . Secretary kerry im an optimist because i believe americans are really waking up and taking stock of the position the Current Administration has put us in. There are reasons to be concerned about the pandemic carrying into 2021. That will be difficult and present the next president with Major Economic challenges as well as global strategic challenges. Im optimistic about that. I believe we will have a new president. I think we will see record levels of turnout in this election. People are seized by a number of issues. By what happened with the George Floyds murder. Aggregate of all of the civilrights components, including environmental justice. People see a link between covid19 and the unwillingness to listen to science and facts, experts, and climate where they are unwilling to listen and we have deniers in the United States. The United States has succeeded the last three and a half years alienating itself from our friends and has made the world a more dangerous place. The iran nuclear agreement, Climate Change, a fake trade war, which has raised prices for people and discombobulated the trade scheme. You can run a list. The president standing feet away from president putin and disavowing his own town intelligence community. We have seen things none of us would ever have believed we could have seen or heard from any administration. And i think the dam is breaking. Show vicelatest polls president well ahead. Granted. Ake that for i have run for president. They will pull out every stop. I am confident about americas future, provided we have a change in leadership. If we dont, all bets are off on many issues. Now that you have raise the election, i will go to the heart of the matter. You were secretary of state in 2016 we saw russia interfere with election. Now that we are looking forward to the next race what threat are , you worried about most for 2020 . Secretary kerry i am concerned about two things. I remain and about the foreign threat. President trump overtly, according to john boltons book, he invited china to get involved in the race and help him win. We know russia is engaged here and in europe and elsewhere in the world. Down 1. 6 billion fake accounts last year. You can bet your boots that is not the end of the problem. In any way whatsoever. They are very sophisticated in finding new weaknesses or opening up new weaknesses. Undoubtedly there will be attacks there. I am also concerned about something that affected my inpaign in 2004 and al gore 2000 and it has affected other campaigns in our country, including recently in georgia officials of a particular party purposely make it difficult for the other party to vote, where they control those matters. We have precincts where there are not enough machines. People wait in long lines. It is going to be complicated because of covid. Access to ballot is supposed to be one of the greatest things for democracy. Here we are having held ourselves up as the leader of the free world for a long time. Certainly of the western world and we are not meeting the standard we ought to be meeting. I am concerned about protecting the vote. Make sure people actually do vote. That are the key items being worked on now. A lot of people are focused on this. I am hopeful we will have so many people voting that the vote will not be close, so that things are definitive and we have a clear mandate on the future of the United States. Phonedn australian, i the voting issues mindboggling in the United States. Alarm bells everywhere. Threat we needp to focus on . We need an American Global leadership. I hope to see that after the election. I am concerned about the foreign interference. I think the u. S. Is better prepared than four years ago. The russian that playbook has been adopted by other autocratic regimes in the world. Put ak we still have to close eye on those developments. This is why we decided yesterday to continue the work of the Transatlantic Commission on Election Integrity that i established with joe biden a couple of years ago. The purpose of that commission is to monitor elections and look into possible foreign interference with our elections. So we are better prepared. We should still focus on it. Kerry, you have your own experiences as a president ial candidate, as you mentioned. You work gracious to concede when you did lose. For me, how do you think americans and the political a delayed will treat result because of mailin ballots . A close or contested result . And do you think trump will leave in the manner we have become accustomed if he does lose . Say iary kerry let me was not that quick to concede. There were serious questions about what had happened in ohio and other places. I finally did concede because i war, theith america at last thing we were going to be benefiting from was a contested election that took us to december and we would have the same result. It did not make sense. , i am goingbout now to do everything in my power to make sure this is not close. Now,ay it is going right it will not be close. I cant speak to what will happen. It depends on the circumstances. Moveieve americans want to in a different direction. This has been chaos for four years. There are major issues. You know this. With this. Amiliar we are looking at cyber. Stopan press a button and a nations business and all kinds of services. Have, and nothing is being done to follow up on what we started in the Obama Administration to work with china on setting the rules of the road for cyber. We have to do that. That is a negotiation just as important of Nuclear Weapons for gorbachev and reagan to take us in a new direction. We need leadership. We also have to face the nuclear issue. Russia and the u. S. And others. We see the threat of increased arms race. It is stupid and dangerous. It is a vast expenditure of funds we dont need. And then you have of course Climate Change. Youve got the challenge of over the populist nationalism exploited as a result of the downsides of globalization. There are many challenges. All of which, the pandemic, health, or any of these issues, you have to have global engagement. The United States must be there. Today as we are talking, it is no exaggeration to say we dont have a leader of the free world. And the institutions we put together, you know this, world war i, we said we dont want chemical weapons. Bringwar ii, how to countries together, we created the u. N. This was done because we knew it would address problems and be a better way of making the world a place where we can operate and Work Together and get things done and have a better life. That is not happening today. We have people praising dictators and moving in the opposite direction. Tom going to continue believe this election will not be close. We will have a mandate in america. If it is close, we will deal with that circumstances. Hopefully we have late enough groundwork that we will be well prepared. Weve got an audience journalist. M a what youing about think of American Democratic institutions if donald trump is reelected. I throw in these organization the administration seems intent on undercutting or withdrawing from, the International Criminal court, and so on. What was the beginning of the question . How worried are you about the future of american institutions . I am worried right now, our democracy is not working up to par. Very simple. Too much money in our system. Far too little sensitivity to the plight of a bunch of people. Who were living far more unequal lives. Wealthparity of distribution in our country has grown worse and worse by the year. So we have major challenges. If people dont have adequate access to the ballot, that is the stuff from which revolutions are built. We begin to deny people the capacity of democracy to work, even the Founding Fathers wrote in the declaration of independence, we have an inherent right to challenge that. I am worried that increasingly, people are disaffected. What encourages me is this incredible, spontaneous reaction to the killing of george floyd by those Police Officers has a unleashed a torrent of awareness that people see this unfairness. I think its becoming a voting issue. It wasnt a voting issue, it may now become one. This will be a fascinating year. We have not had a year like this in the u. S. Since Martin Luther king was assassinated. And Bobby Kennedy assassinated. We had major challenges in our streets. I am more optimistic now that we are going to see a massive response, and perhaps, real change for the better. That will strengthen america in the world. We will have greater credibility in dealing with countries all around the world. If we get a new president , who and is readypects, to listen to and believe, i think you will see a world of difference in other countries as well. See Common Ground in the substance, if not the style it strikes me that there is bipartisan support towards china. One area where we might Common Ground in the substance, if not the style it strikes me that there is bipartisan support towards china. That brings up issues in hong kong and trade policy as a matter of dispute. Is it trump policy that is wrong or mostly his execution of it . Combination. Your policy is part of your execution. Everybody has agreed that china presents real challenges when it comes to what they are prepared to do in reciprocity, in fairness in the economic exchange. They operate by a different system. That system, which can sometimes force companies to be forced to give up their technology in order to do business, or that did not get equal access and a marketplace, that is unfair. Every country in the world should care about that. Donald trump is right to raise that issue. He raised it and he walked away from it. John bolton did not just walk away from it. He was ready to trade help for buying more goods. He said if you buy more goods, that is the end of the trade issue. No, it is not the end of the trade issue. The president s policy is not correct. I think that we have to recognize that we will not stop Climate Change without china being deeply involved. We got them to be involved in the negotiation. The chinese came on board for the first time and it was critical. We need to thank them for the work that they have done. They have taken Climate Change quite seriously. But we will have to address that. None of that has been talked to by donald trump. He is making life far more tenuous and risky for people all over the world, affected by his attitude as the leader of the Worlds Largest economy. It is critical that the last lead on this. While he may have defined some of the problems with china, he has not executed thoughtfully at all. We are far worse off today and the relationship with china and when we started. The Climate Change issue is close to your heart. I wonder, how can americans maximize their impact on the issue . Does that include governors or other actors going and partnering or negotiating with china direct to get those back regardless of the administration . It is a simple answer, what can americans do . You can vote, vote, vote. When trump was elected, the turnout of eligible americans was 56 . The year i ran, it was about 62 . When obama got elected, it was 63. 7 . You get the drift. Young people have the greatest stake in the future. Only 19 of people between 18 and 25 voted. If people come out and vote, we will change the direction of the world. That is the foremost thing that people are going to do. I have worked on this issue for 30 plus years. Working on the whole road up to paris. Even if we did everything we were able to achieve in paris, we would still see the warming of the planet. We are currently on track to hit 4. 1 degrees by the end of the century. We are just not getting the job done. China is about to bring power online. So, we have a monumental challenge ahead of all of us. What is exciting about it is, it is not a downside, economically. If we make the right choices and do the right things with the right level of cooperation, there are millions of jobs to be created, extraordinary benefit in terms of health, less particulates and less cancer, less emphysema. There is a huge benefit to the security by building new security base at which we are not at risk to sending people to the middle east to fight a war to defend our ability to run our factories and heat our homes. It is an exciting future and we will grab that feature, but we only have about nine years left to make the decisions that will make the greatest difference for us and avoiding the worst consequences of the climate crisis. We have to get to work and get to work fast. That can only happen with president biden. I was interviewing joshua wong, and he was very frustrated with the statements of concern about the situation in hong kong. He was critical of the eu for not doing more to stand up. Being in those rooms and crafting that language, at what point do you flip the switch and move into the trade embargoes, the sanctions or other measures . He was clearly frustrated. I wonder if you had to make those judgment calls where it is time to step out of hong kong . You are our guest of honor, so it is natural that you are the one who has spoken the most, but what we need is speaking for europe. We need a more united european stance. We should listen to the democratic activists in hong kong. I think we should speak up, stand firm and tell china that they are not fulfilling their International Obligations by passing the security law. We should step up our support for taiwan. The chinese adhered to the principal of one country, two systems, but we can support hong kong and taiwan much more. Let me conclude by saying that i am so grateful for you meeting with us. I agree that the covid crisis has taught us that we need more, not Less International cooperation. The free world forms and aligns democracies to stand up against autocracies to use new technology etc. I agree with you. We should never not stand up for democracy. Democracy is the foremost principle in our being. It is in our dna and no place knows better what happens when you are not vigilant than europe. Europe has lived a tortured history because of fascism, tyranny and so forth. We have to do a better job. Here in america, we are doing our part. Our congress has been dysfunctional. We did not even pass a budget. There is almost no bipartisan budget passing. Rules when the same when i was there. We worked across the aisle. What has changed with the people and leadership of politics, where people are not standing up for for the institution and for the system. I think that, and also, you know, in recent days, we just read again john boltons book lays out pretty clearly donald trump did not stand up to president xi with respect to the uighurs and said intern them all. We have got other things to talk about. If you dont stand up, that is when things run away. That is when evil can take over. I think it is vital for us to remember, as i was saying earlier, we created this liberal order as we called it not to be liberal, not to just have a structure there to talk about. We created it because it put in place institutions which would help us work more effectively, live more effectively, be safer. Nato is one of the greatest alliances ever created in the world. And yet our president has been attacking it these last few years. I think the road is clear. I dont think we need to keep repeating the challenge is making democracy work which means voting. There is no automatic pilot in democracy and there is nothing the desperates in the world love to see more than the west wringing its hands over where to go. We are wasting so much Political Energy it is astounding, brexit and so forth. Europe has been on hold for the last few years. It certainly wasnt a waste of our time. Time to move on to the next session. I wish we could speak longer but everyone has limits on zoom. Thank you so much. Stay safe and well. Take a short former secretary of state Madeleine Albright participates in a discussion with the former nato secretary, and ryan heath, as part of the copenhagen democracy summit. This is half an hour. Good afternoon. Good evening, good morning. Wherever you are in the world, welcome back to this session on democratic backsliding and u. S. Global leadership. We are honored to have former u. S. Secretary of state Madeleine Albright and the Senior Editor at politico. Welcome. Good mog