06-12-2021, 04:45 PM
![[Image: Glasser-BidenG7.jpg]](https://media.newyorker.com/photos/60c27e6c18f7da5e0d2790c0/master/w_2560%2Cc_limit/Glasser-BidenG7.jpg)
Falmouth, England (CNN)President Joe Biden's attempts to talk up democracy in Europe this week are facing headwinds from back home, where revelations about the Justice Department's attempts to obtain Democrats' data have raised new concerns about the state of American politics.
Throughout his time here, Biden is making the case to American allies that democracy must prevail over a rising tide of authoritarianism. His argument has been that democracies are better at providing for their people and the world.
He has openly acknowledged that democracies are often messy. But he said this week that the world had reached an "inflection point" where the competition between democracy and autocracy is coming to a head.
Yet as challenges back home bubble up, he is finding it harder to point to his own country's own recent history, including the lingering remnants of President Donald Trump's tenure.
As he was preparing to attend his first G7 meeting on Friday, reports emerged from Washington that prosecutors in Trump's Justice Department, beginning in February 2018, subpoenaed Apple for data from the accounts of House Intelligence Committee Democrats, their staff and family members, including at least one minor, as part of a leak investigation. The subpoena included a gag order, which was renewed three times before it expired this year and Apple notified the customers in May.
The development immediately drew accusations the Trump administration was abusing its power in a decidedly undemocratic fashion. The attempts by the Justice Department to secretly gather information about Trump's political rivals came after revelations it took similar steps to obtain information from reporters at outlets Trump frequently denigrated.
It was the kind of step American officials often decry in the authoritarian regimes Biden is hoping to minimize in his European tour this week. Russian President Vladimir Putin, who's set to meet with the President next week and is a fan of using whataboutism in order to deflect criticism of his regime, no doubt read the reports with interest.
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