CNN, The Atlantic journalists among Biden guests for private White House meetings: Report

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#MediaBuzz - Sunday, August 7

On today's episode of '#MediaBuzz', Howard discusses the Democrats pushing through a massive climate/health/tax bill and what's to come from it.

According to a new report, President Biden has held private meetings with groups that have included journalists at The Atlantic and CNN to receive advice and insight on subjects like domestic threats to democracy and Ukraine.

The Washington Post reported Wednesday that a "sort of Socratic dialogue between the commander in chief and a select group of scholars" about democracy occurred last week that included The Atlantic staff writer Anne Applebaum, who is also a published author and historian.

The latter amounted to what the Post called a "two-hour private history lesson from a group of academics who raised alarms about the dire condition of democracy at home and abroad," and "the Aug. 4 gathering was distinguished by its relatively small size and the focus of the participants on the rise of totalitarianism around the world and the threat to democracy at home."

"Comparisons were made to the years before the 1860 election when Abraham Lincoln warned that a ‘house divided against itself cannot stand’ and the lead-up to the 1940 election, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt battled rising domestic sympathy for European fascism and resistance to the United States joining World War II," the Post wrote. 

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The meeting underscored to some critics the at-times cozy relationship between mainstream media members and Democrats.

"The Atlantic is not an organ of the Democratic Party, their staff writers just occasionally brief the president in off the record meetings on how to handle domestic political enemies," the Washington Free Beacon's Joseph Simonson tweeted.

Among the other attendees at the Aug. 4 conversation were liberal NBC News historian Michael Beschloss and former Biden speechwriter Jon Meacham, who took heat in 2020 for writing for the candidate while still serving as a paid MSNBC contributor. The Post noted "most of the experts in attendance have been outspoken in recent months about the threat they see to the American democratic project."

Beschloss said as much last year as the U.S. marked the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, claiming the country was in as much danger now as it was in 1860 or 1940.

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"Because all of us should be able to unite around the idea that we're saving our democracy. That's what those people were doing, those heroes were doing on Flight 93 and elsewhere 20 years ago tomorrow. Our democracy tonight is as much in danger, I think, as it was in 1860 before the Civil War and in 1940 before Pearl Harbor," Beschloss said.

The Atlantic owner Laurene Powell Jobs, the billionaire widow of Apple founder Steve Jobs, was a donor to the Biden presidential campaign. Jobs made two $2,800 donations to the Democratic candidate, once in October 2019 and once in June 2020, according to records from the Federal Election Commission. 

CNN's Fareed Zakaria was among those who met with Biden to discuss Ukraine in the East Room earlier this year, according to the Washington Post, as well as former diplomat Richard Haass, analyst Ian Bremmer, former National Security Council adviser Fiona Hill and retired Adm. and former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO James G. Stavridis.

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Zakaria hosts "Fareed Zakaria GPS" on Sundays for CNN, which focuses on foreign affairs and international issues.

CNN and The Atlantic didn't return requests for comment.