Biden touts ties with India but gives only an indirect nudge on human rights

President Joe Biden hailed the country’s deepening relationship with India as he stood alongside its leader Thursday, highlighting the ascendant nation’s strategic importance while making only oblique references to New Delhi’s backsliding democracy.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi heads the world’s largest democracy but has ruled as an autocratic-leaning Hindu nationalist whose government has overseen a crackdown on everyone from journalists to political opposition leaders as part of a larger targeting of Indian Muslims. Despite its wariness of Modi, the U.S. has looked to New Delhi as a rising economic partner and a bulwark against China’s dominance in the region.

Biden did not upbraid Modi in public but gently noted a need for a shared commitment to ‘democratic values.

“Indians and Americans … cherish freedom and celebrate the democratic values of universal human rights,” Biden said during a news conference, “which face challenges around the world and in each of our countries but which remain so vital to the success of each of our nations: press freedoms, religion freedom, tolerance, diversity.”

While standing with his Indian counterpart in the White House East Room, Biden deemed the nations’ partnership "among the most consequential in the world" and "stronger, closer, and more dynamic than at any time in history." Biden brought up human rights concerns behind closed doors, White House aides insisted, although they did not immediately get into details.

Human rights advocates have criticized Biden not just for hosting Modi, but for throwing him a state dinner, a prestigious honor bestowed upon only two other foreign leaders since Biden took office.

Earlier Thursday, Biden welcomed Modi to the White House with a speech touting religious freedom as a “core principle” for both nations, a gentle chiding for the prime minister’s treatment of Muslims.

“Equity under the law, freedom of expression, religious pluralism and diversity of our people — these core principles have endured and evolve,” said Biden in the welcoming ceremony. “Even as they have faced challenges throughout each of our nations’ histories, and will fuel our strength, depth and future.”

Modi, who has not taken a question at a news conference in his nine years as prime minister, flashed some impatience when asked about his nation’s commitment to democracy and human rights, before fiercely declaring that “democracy is in our DNA.”

“We live in democracy,” Modi said as part of a long winded defense. “Regardless of caste, creed, religion and gender, there is absolutely no space for discrimination.”

Modi’s visit to Washington has illustrated his rise. India just became the world’s most populous nation, the nation’s surging economy is drawing foreign investment, and Modi will host the world’s leaders at the G-20 in New Delhi this fall.

The U.S. feels it has no choice but continue to court him as an essential bulwark on the far side of the globe. To the dismay of the White House, India has remained neutral in the war between Russia and Ukraine. And while New Delhi has not offered Moscow any direct assistance, it has continued to purchase its gas, helping Vladimir Putin fund his war efforts. Biden did not publicly push Modi to back Kyiv but Biden said the two spoke about “our shared effort to mitigate humanitarian tragedies unleashed by Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine.”

But India’s biggest role, the administration believes, could be to provide a check on China. India and China share a lengthy border and recent tensions. U.S. has elevated India as part of the Quad alliance — along with Australia and Japan — to reinforce democracy’s position in the Pacific and has pushed New Delhi to act as a buffer against the economic and territorial ambitions of Xi Jinping. And Biden, in response to a reporter’s question, did not back down from his recent characterization of Xi as a “dictator,” a label that was met with fury from Beijing.

Biden administration officials have said they are not blind to India’s faults and troubles. Instead, they say in dealing with a geo-strategically vital country of 1.4 billion people, they prefer to level their criticisms behind the scenes.

But doing so, human rights activists argue, means offering a tacit blessing to the abuses taking place under Modi’s watch — and it forfeits an opportunity to improve the situation. A handful of progressive Democrats boycotted Modi’s speech before a joint session of Congress scheduled for after the news conference.

“A joint address is among the most prestigious invitations and honors the United States Congress can extend,” said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), one of those shunning the speech, in a statement. “We should not do so for individuals with deeply troubling human rights records – particularly for individuals whom our own State Department has concluded are engaged in systematic human rights abuses of religious minorities and caste-oppressed communities.”

Human rights advocates cite a litany of abuses by the Modi government, including passage of a law that discriminates against Muslims by making religion a basis of citizenship and the revocation of the autonomy granted to the majority-Muslim Jammu and Kashmir region. Some Indian states also passed “anti-conversion” laws that appear to target Muslim men who marry Hindu women. These and other moves have played out against a backdrop of more violence against religious minorities and crackdowns on government critics and journalists.

Many presidents have had to deal with unsavory foreign elements to advance U.S. political interest. Biden, when he ran for president, trashed Trump’s seeming indifference to suffering around the world, promising to put human rights at the “center” of his foreign policy. But he and his team have also made deals with nations like Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

The White House touted a series of agreements reached at the summit, including new economic deals, climate commitments, and contracts for semiconductors and other technologies. Aides defended the decision to have the state dinner, suggesting it is a representation of the administration’s appreciation of India’s new engagement with the world and, they say, its commitment to be a good global citizen.

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India's Modi emphasizes democratic values despite human rights concerns

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday pushed back against questions about his country’s human rights record, in a White House news conference alongside President Joe Biden.

“That is why in India’s democratic values there is absolutely no discrimination, neither on basis of class, creed or age, or any kind of geographic location,” Modi said.

Modi’s visit to the U.S. comes as some Democrats say Biden is turning a blind eye to India’s crackdown on dissent, including the detention of journalists and attacks on religious minorities.

Some lawmakers, including Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), plan to boycott Modi’s address to Congress on Thursday afternoon.

The administration has repeatedly said that Modi’s visit would include frank, private discussions about human rights, even as Biden aims to court a vital relationship in the region that could serve as a bulwark against China.

“The prime minister and I had a good discussion about democratic values, and that’s the nature of our relationship,” Biden said on Thursday. “We’re straightforward with each other, and we respect each other.”

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Former Texas Rep. Will Hurd announces presidential bid

Former Texas Rep. Will Hurd announced Thursday that he’s throwing his hat in the ring for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.

Hurd, who was first elected to his congressional seat in 2014 and did not run for reelection in 2020, now enters the crowded presidential field of 13 other candidates as a major underdog.

The former congressman has been an outspoken critic of former President Donald Trump and said last month that a race between President Joe Biden and Trump would be a “rematch from hell.”

“Someone like me, right, a dark horse candidate, can pull this off,” Hurd, 45, told “CBS Mornings” Thursday. “One, you can't be afraid of Donald Trump. Too many of these candidates in this race are afraid of Donald Trump. But we also have to articulate a different vision.”

In a video announcing his candidacy, Hurd listed illegal immigration and inflation as chief among his motivations to run.

“Our enemies plot, create chaos, and threaten the American dream. At home, illegal immigration and fentanyl stream into our country. Inflation, still out of control. Crime and homelessness growing in our cities,” Hurd says in the video.

Before his career in politics, Hurd was an undercover CIA officer working in counterterrorism.

Hurd won his first election by defeating incumbent Democratic Rep. Pete Gallego by roughly 2,400 votes in 2014, surprising strategists in both parties. In 2018, Hurd won reelection by less than a thousand votes.

When announcing his retirement, Hurd denied that he was concerned about his reelection chances in an increasingly competitive district but instead said he left Congress to help the GOP become more diverse. He was the only Black Republican in the House at the time of his retirement announcement.

“President Biden can’t solve these problems — or won’t,” Hurd says in the video. “And if we nominate a lawless, selfish, failed politician like Donald Trump — who lost the House, the Senate and the White House — we all know Joe Biden will win again.”

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Pentagon documents leak suspect pleads not guilty

WORCESTER, Mass. — Jack Teixeira, the Massachusetts Air National Guard member accused of leaking highly classified military documents on a social media platform, pleaded not guilty Wednesday to federal felony charges.

Teixeira, 21, entered the pleas during a hearing in Worcester’s federal court days after he was indicted by a grand jury on six counts of willful retention and transmission of national defense information. Each count is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

Handcuffed and wearing orange jail garb, Teixeira smiled at family seated in the gallery at the start of the hearing. He stood at the defense table next to his lawyers and leaned over to say “not guilty, your honor” into the microphone after the judge read each count. The judge also denied a defense request to reconsider his detention order.

Teixeira, of North Dighton, has been behind bars since his April arrest on charges stemming from the most consequential intelligence leak in years. A magistrate judge ruled last month that Teixeira must remain in jail while the case plays out, saying that releasing him would pose a risk that he would attempt to flee the country or obstruct justice.

The leak left the Biden administration scrambling to assess and contain the damage among the international community and reassure allies that its secrets are safe with the U.S.

Teixeira’s family said in a statement Wednesday that they “remain committed as ever” to supporting him. “The important thing is Jack will now have his day in court,” they said. “We are hopeful that Jack will be getting the fair and just treatment he deserves.”

Teixeira’s attorney has said his client “will answer the charges” and “will be judged by his fellow citizens.” In pushing for his release, Teixeira’s attorneys argued that the government isn’t alleging Teixeira ever intended that the information be widely disseminated.

Teixeira is accused of sharing classified military documents about Russia’s war in Ukraine and other sensitive national security topics on Discord, a social media platform popular with people playing online games. Investigators believe he was the leader of a private chat group called Thug Shaker Central, where enthusiasts shared jokes, talked about their favorite types of guns and discussed wars, including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Authorities say Teixeira, who enlisted in the Air National Guard in 2019, began around January sharing military secrets with other Discord users — first by typing out classified documents and then sharing photographs of files that bore SECRET and TOP SECRET markings. Teixeira worked as a a “cyber transport systems specialist,” essentially an IT specialist responsible for military communications networks.

Prosecutors say he continued to leak government secrets even after he was warned by superiors about mishandling and improper viewing of classified information. After being admonished by superiors last year, he was again seen in February viewing information not related to the intelligence field, not his primary duty, according to internal Air National Guard memos filed in court.

Justice Department lawyers revealed in earlier court filings that Teixeira had a history of disturbing online remarks. He wrote in November that he would “kill a (expletive) ton of people” if he had his way, because it would be “culling the weak minded.” He also used his government computer in July to look up mass shootings, searching terms such as “Mandalay Bay shooting” and “Uvalde,” prosecutors said.

Authorities have provided few details about an alleged possible motive, but accounts of those in the online private chat group where the documents were disclosed have depicted Teixeira as motivated more by bravado than ideology.

Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement last week that Teixeira was entrusted with information “that reasonably could be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to national security if shared.”

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Putin turns on the pandas: Russia bans WWF amid civil society crackdown

The environmental group joins a growing list of international organizations outlawed since the start of the Kremlin's war on Ukraine.

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Ballsy EU Commission moves to make Russia pay for Ukraine

The unprecedented move is controversial among some EU countries and the ECB, which think going it alone is too risky.

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Did Hunter Biden get off easy? We asked the experts.

Hunter Biden’s plea deal may resolve his immediate legal troubles, but it has only exacerbated the persistent debate over whether the president’s son is being treated too harshly, too leniently or just like any other citizen.

Republicans are bashing the agreement — which allows Biden to plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax crimes and avoid prison on a felony gun charge if he stays out of trouble — as an outrageous sweetheart deal. But independent legal experts say the truth is more complicated.

Two former IRS lawyers said Biden’s deal is not an outlier and is similar to what ordinary taxpayers could expect if investigated for similar conduct. Two other former tax officials told POLITICO that Biden could have faced stiffer charges.

And while former President Donald Trump is railing against the deal, experts noted an irony: Trump himself likely could have gotten a similar deal if he had cooperated with federal investigators eyeing his retention of government documents. Instead, Trump is accused of obstructing those investigators and is now under indictment and facing significant prison time.

Maggie Abdo-Gomez, a Miami tax attorney and former IRS lawyer, said it’s rare for people to face criminal charges for simply failing to pay their taxes.

“I’ve only seen them — one time — prosecute someone for failure to pay taxes,” she said. “Because the truth is, if we prosecuted for failure to pay taxes, the jails would be full. Forget the drug dealers and the murderers and everybody else. I have a small practice, and I’ve got tons of people that owe taxes.”

“The laws were enforced as if it had been anybody else,” she added, regarding Hunter’s case. “I would say probably a little stricter, because failure to pay is very common.”

Caroline Ciraolo, acting head of the Justice Department’s Tax Division for the last year of the Obama administration, said the case’s resolution didn’t strike her as outside the norm. If the Justice Department had found evidence that Hunter Biden lied or took other “affirmative acts” to dodge his taxes, he likely would have faced tougher charges, she said.

“If there was evidence of affirmative conduct, then under DOJ policy the charge would have been felony evasion of payment,” she added. “And that’s not the case here. And after five years and an investigation that crossed two administrations on different sides of the aisle, I would imagine that if there was evidence of affirmative conduct, we would not be looking at the information we’re looking at right now.”

But that’s not a consensus view. Kathy Enstrom, who spent more than two decades doing criminal investigation work at the IRS, said the president’s son could have faced tougher charges. She left the IRS two years ago, while the Biden investigation was ongoing, but said she had no visibility into the probe. Usually, she said, agents in IRS Criminal Investigation recommend felony charges in cases like this one.

“This is a little bit unique in terms of how they’re utilizing the 7203 misdemeanor charge,” she said, referring to the provision of the U.S. code under which Biden is pleading guilty. “I just haven’t seen that too often, mostly because the agents of IRS CI work the most egregious cases, and when they move forward with investigations, they’re looking toward a felony conviction, not necessarily something less than that. The resources of IRS CI are very limited and so that’s their main goal, ultimately — a felony conviction.”

Mark Milton, who spent four years as a trial attorney in the Justice Department’s Tax Division, also said misdemeanor tax charges are unusual. He added that the court filings detailing the charges were “very bare bones,” which gives the public — and the judge who will handle sentencing — minimal clues regarding Hunter Biden’s financial wrongdoing.

“In my experience, prosecutors want felonies in tax cases,” he said. “The fact that he’s only pleading guilty to misdemeanors suggests special treatment.”

Attorney General Merrick Garland has sharply pushed back against allegations of special treatment, including in new comments on Wednesday. He noted that the U.S. attorney who supervised the investigation and agreed to the plea deal was appointed by Trump.

The plea deal includes a so-called diversion program – sometimes used for defendants with substance abuse issues — that will result in prosecutors dropping the gun charge if Hunter Biden complies with the program’s conditions. The charge itself — possessing a firearm while being a user of illegal drugs — is not a charge the Justice Department frequently prosecutes.

Brandon Beck, formerly an appellate lawyer in the Office of the Federal Public Defender for the Northern District of Texas, said that the Justice Department may have been wary of a constitutional challenge to the gun law.

“It’s something that’s probably a little bit unusual, but it could be explained by the constitutional problems with (g)(3),” Beck said, referring to the statutory provision that prohibits drug users from having guns. “Or it could be explained by preferential treatment of the son of the president. And how would you know? They both could explain it.”

“I would always think, if the president’s your dad, your life’s a little bit easier,” he added.

Trump himself has claimed on social media that the plea deal is “a massive COVERUP & FULL SCALE ELECTION INTERFERENCE ‘SCAM’ THE LIKES OF WHICH HAS NEVER BEEN SEEN IN OUR COUNTRY BEFORE.”

But Elkan Abramowitz, a long-time Manhattan criminal defense attorney, said Trump himself could have gotten a similar deal if he had fully cooperated with investigators scrutinizing his retention of classified documents.

“I think that if Trump wanted to work out a deal for the documents case, he would have gotten a misdemeanor as well under similar arrangements,” he said. “So I don’t think there’s anything extraordinary.”

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