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Much at stake for Biden as NATO leaders gather in Washington
Washington — NATO leaders gathering in Washington starting Tuesday plan to shore up transatlantic support for Ukraine in its battle against Russia. But for the host, President Biden, the summit has become just as much about demonstrating he’s capable of meeting the grinding demands of the presidency for four more years.
Heads of state from Europe and North America are confronting the prospect of the return to the Oval Office of NATO skeptic Donald Trump as Mr. Biden tries to save his reelection campaign, which has been in a tailspin following a disastrous June 27 debate performance against Trump.
The president said his work at the summit, where NATO is celebrating 75 years, would be a good way to judge his continued ability to do the job. He points to his work rallying NATO members in its stiff response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a prime example of his steady leadership and among the reasons he deserves another four years in the White House.
“Our allies are looking for U.S. leadership,” Mr. Biden said in an MSNBC interview Monday. “Who else do you think can step in here and do this? I expanded NATO. I solidified NATO. I made sure that we’re in a position where we have a coalition of … nations around the world to deal with China, with Russia, with everything that’s going on in the world. We’re making real progress.”
Making his case
Mr. Biden is in a blitz to persuade voters, Democrats and donors that he’s still up to the job. He’s been making his case on the campaign trail, in a defiant letter to Democratic lawmakers and during friendly media interviews over the last several days. Still, he faces skepticism from some longtime allies.
Several Democratic House members have publicly called on the president to quit his campaign, other lawmakers in private conversations have urged him to step aside, and several high-profile donors have raised concerns about his viability in the race.
But in the letter he sent Monday to congressional Democrats, Mr. Biden said he is “firmly committed” to staying in the race and made clear that he wouldn’t be running again if he “did not absolutely believe I was the best person to beat Donald Trump in 2024.”
Mr. Biden also spoke to Democratic donors in a call, saying he was done talking about the debate, according to a CBS News source familiar with the discussion during the call. “I’m not going anywhere and I’m going to beat Trump,” he said in the call, which came hours after the letter went out.
The White House hopes to display to wobbly Democrats that Mr. Biden still has what it takes during what’s expected to be a busy few days of formal summit meetings, sideline chats with leaders, long diplomatic dinners and receptions and a summit-ending press conference.
Several senior administration officials who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss internal conversations say the president displays a strong grasp of the broader issues – Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the threat posed by China – but on specific and incremental actions that countries or groups may take when it comes to these conflicts, Mr. Biden has appeared to be at worst confused or has not seemed to have a keen grasp on how to handle them.
However, the officials say there isn’t – at least not yet – a crisis in confidence over his general mental state.
The summit will give Mr. Biden his first chance to meet face-to-face with new British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. The president called Starmer last week to congratulate him on his win, and plans to host him Wednesday for talks at the White House.
The Labour Party leader had no concerns about Mr. Biden’s mental acuity during their phone call, according to a spokesman for the prime minister who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private call.
The gathering of the leaders from the 32 NATO countries – plus Pacific partners Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea, as well as Ukraine – is expected to be one of Mr. Biden’s last appearances at an international forum before Election Day and comes before next week’s Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
Biden and Trump’s different takes on NATO
Mr. Biden has sought to spotlight his commitment to the alliance while making the case to voters that Trump would turn his back on NATO if he were to return to the White House.
Trump has repeatedly criticized fellow NATO members who failed to meet an agreed-upon goal of spending at least 2% of gross domestic product on defense. European anxiety was heightened in February when Trump warned NATO allies in a campaign speech that he “would encourage” Russia ” to do whatever the hell they want” to countries that don’t meet defense spending goals if he returns to the White House.
Trump has criticized Mr. Biden for providing an “endless flow of American treasure” to Ukraine. The Republican more recently has expressed openness to lending money instead and has said Ukraine’s independence is important to the United States.
Biden aides have pushed back, noting NATO’s announcement last month that 23 of 32 member nations are hitting the alliance’s defense spending target this year. Nine member nations were meeting the goal when Mr. Biden took office in 2021.
The president has also taken credit for the expansion of NATO. Both Finland and Sweden have joined in the aftermath of Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
“That’s not by accident,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby said. “That’s because of leadership. That’s because of a constant stewardship of the alliance and other partnerships around the world. The president’s record speaks for itself.”
NATO is expected to announce details of Ukraine’s pathway to membership into the alliance during the summit. NATO, which is built around the foundational agreement that an attack on one member is an attack on all members, has maintained it won’t bring Ukraine into the fold until after the conflict with Russia ends.
Kirby said leaders will also discuss efforts to set up a coordination center in Germany to help train, equip and coordinate logistics for Ukraine forces for its expected eventual accession into NATO.
The U.S. and allies plan to unveil steps during the summit to strengthen Ukraine’s air defenses and military capabilities to help it deter Russian aggression, Kirby said.
Ian Brzezinski, a senior fellow at the Washington thinktank the Atlantic Council, said Mr. Biden needs to use the summit to “significantly reverse the impression” that he left with his poor debate performance.
“This is an immense opportunity for him to lead with vigor and energy, to underscore his commitment, the administration’s commitment, for that matter Congress’ commitment to the alliance and to underscore that he brings to the table the resolve that has made NATO so successful,” Brzezinski said.
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Journalist Jancee Dunn admits it: She has been obsessed with rock star Stevie Nicks ever since high school. “I listened to Stevie’s music for hours and hours and hours,” she said. “I tried to dress, in an ill-advised moment, like Stevie! And she’s just kind of bound up in my early years in a way that is really intense and deeply personal.”
The years flew by, but her feelings never faded. So, imagine her joy when, in 1997, Harper’s Bazaar assigned her to interview Stevie Nicks at her California home!
Dunn began prepping immediately, rehearsing in front of a mirror how she would say “Hell-o, Stevie.”
Did Nicks understand what a fan she was? “I kept it together so I wouldn’t creep her out; I don’t think she fully knew what a fan that I was,” she said. “I knew to kind of pull it back!”
The interview even featured a surreal tour of the rock star’s closet, filled with capes she had worn on stage and her famous platform boots. Dunn said it was, indubitably, one of the happiest afternoons of her life. Her only keepsake: A precious autographed T-shirt that she stores folded in a special place in her closet.
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Asked if she ever though, This is fun, this is great, but Stevie’s just a person like me, Dunn replied, “No! No, why would I think that? It’s Stevie Nicks! Never did I think that, because it’s not true. She’s different. She’s otherworldly.”
Sociologist Kerry Ferris, a professor at Northern Illinois University, says our excitement over celebrities stems from them embodying things that we want for ourselves: “They have some combination of talent and good looks and wealth and renown,” she said.
Ferris has a database of dozens of celebrity encounter stories: “There’s a whole sort of category of encounters that involve physical contact, and fans really get excited about that: ‘I touched so-and-so.’ ‘I gave them a hug.’ ‘I shook their hand.’ ‘I sat next to them on the bus.’ And then, they get off the bus! It’s very fleeting. But it becomes the nugget of the celebrity-sighting story.”
Ferris said these stories typically follow a pattern. First comes disbelief (Is that really Beyoncé?), then strategizing (should I go introduce myself?), and then, often, embarrassment! “People get really worried about how stupid they must have sounded, looked or seemed,” Ferris said.
Psychologists refer to this kind of one-sided relationship as “parasocial.” University of Indianapolis professor Travis Cooper, who teaches in the philosophy and religion department, explains: “The fan is going to typically know a whole lot about the star, maybe their life history (depends on the level of their fandom). And the star is going to know nothing about that fan.”
The intensity of the feeling, Cooper said, is what makes such a relationship so mystifying. He should know – he’s had his own celebrity encounter.
One day, to his surprise, he spotted the actor Jesse Eisenberg at his local Y, an event he described as two worlds colliding: “I had my academic training, all that stuff kind of in my head that filters out how I see the world, all that on the one hand; and then on the other hand, I had this very visceral experience,” Cooper said. “There was a slight embarrassment, almost a giddiness, almost a fanboy kind of reaction at some point.”
He said he doesn’t consider himself a fanboy: “I’d like to not. But I feel like, in that moment, that’s kind of what happened.”
Even mention of a celebrity sighting or encounter is bound to stop the conversation. “It’s a brush with a person larger-than-life,” said Vance Ricks, a professor at Northeastern University in Boston. “And so, maybe some of the glory from that person rubs off on you.”
He says we therefore irrationally treasure these relationships. “It’s a little funny or ironic to call it a ‘relationship,’ when it’s so unidirectional,” he said. “What you’re often doing is projecting a sense of being understood by that person, or of knowing about that person.”
What does that tell us about the human condition? “Many of us want some kind of attachment,” Ricks said. “And in some cases, we may create that.”
Jancee Dunn felt that attachment, especially when – after she interviewed Stevie Nicks – the rock star graciously invited her to be an overnight house guest. “I thought, ‘Okay, should I? Shouldn’t I?’ It seemed invasive, it seemed weird. I said no, and I got in the cab. And as I’m pulling away, I mean, I couldn’t have been two blocks down the street where I thought, You idiot!”
She feels the same regret decades later, and even wrote about it for The New York Times, where she is a columnist for the Well section. “Even now, if I’m at the grocery store or the pharmacy, and I hear ‘Edge of Seventeen’ or one of Stevie’s hits, I get a pain in my heart,” she laughed.
What would Dunn like to tell Nicks today? “Stevie, if you were to invite me over to your house again, I would happily spend the night, I would clean up in the morning, and I would be a very good guest!” she laughed.
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Story produced by Amiel Weisfogel. Editor: George Pozderec.
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