Update: Apparently it's 'Be Nice to Dictators Month'
Rubio tells State Department officials to keep their mouths shut if they see election fraud abroad
By Sam Bellamy
Donald Trump, we’ve long known, has as much interest in promoting democracy and human rights abroad as he does here at home. Those are just niceties — like paying contractors what you owe them, or not putting your hands on women without their permission — that no one but losers cares about.
With help of the ever-obliging Marco Rubio, the State Department is steadily embedding Trump’s profound disinterest in the well-being of others into U.S. foreign policy.
Last week, Rubio sent an official cable to U.S. diplomatic and consular posts informing officials that, except in the rarest of circumstances, they are to “avoid opining on the fairness or integrity of an electoral process, its legitimacy, or the democratic values of the country in question.”
This ends a practice of the United States promoting free and fair elections that stretches back to at least the beginning of the Cold War.
As The Wall Street Journal explained, “Public statements by the State Department about an election — or a warning beforehand that it is closely watching the balloting — can have impact, particularly in authoritarian countries, where opposition parties often find themselves shut out of elections or face voter suppression.”
Make that could have an impact. People interested in democratic elections can expect no support from Trump’s America.
The results will be devastating.
“Often it is the public in these situations that risk life and limb to speak out against unfair and noncredible elections,” Nicole Widdersheim of the Human Rights Watch nonprofit told The Journal. “The U.S. Embassy may be the only entity able to shine a light on the bad and unfair processes.”
Rubio’s cable, first reported by The Journal, stipulated that all comments by State Department officials about foreign elections “should be brief, focused on congratulating the winning candidate and, when appropriate, noting shared foreign policy interests.”
If the winner suppressed the vote or changed the final tally, whatever you do, don’t bring it up. Just say “nice job!”
According to The New York Times, Rubio urged officials to make sure all comments are the sort that would meet the president’s approval.
“DO use messaging on elections to advance a U.S. foreign policy goal; DON’T use it to promote an ideology,” the cable said. “Put another way: Would the president say it?”
“Say what Donald Trump would say” has to be some of the worst advice in world history.
Trump would and frequently does say that authoritarian rulers are “great Leaders,” as he did recently in threatening a 50% tariff against Brazil unless criminal charges are dropped against former President Jair Bolsonaro, who is accused to trying to stage a military coup after his election loss.
Trump also has sung the praise of other strongmen who routinely trample the rights of their people, including Hungary’s Viktor Orban, Turkey’s Recep Erdoğan and, of course, Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
As the earlier Fight the Fire piece below notes, this be-nice-to-dictators approach is a noted departure from the Marco Rubio of old, who — as a Republican from Florida and the children of Cuban immigrants — had been an outspoken opponent of promoting human rights and free elections. (The report discussed below still hasn’t been released.)
As The Times reported, “Mr. Rubio dismissed Venezuela’s 2024 presidential election as ‘a complete fraud,’ co-sponsored a 2020 Senate resolution demanding that President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus hold ‘a free, fair, and transparent election that adheres to international standards’ and called Vladimir V. Putin of Russia a ‘tyrant’ who ‘stole an election.’ ”
Rubio, unlike some of his colleagues in the Cabinet, knows that Trump is destroying America’s moral standing and further destabilizing the world.
But Little Marco wants to be Big Marco someday, and he foolishly thinks serving Trump will get him there.
All of this is rich in irony, course. Trump caterwauls incessantly about the “rigged election” that he falsely claims cost him his re-election bid in 2020.
But now, when fraud really does occur abroad, America — land of the free, home the brave — will look the other way.
The following, headlined “Little Marco’s redlined human rights/An upcoming State Department report may abandon Rubio's once-beloved 'freedom-seeking people,’ appeared June 1 at Fight the Fire.
By Sam Bellamy
Marco Rubio is a huge fan of the State Department’s annual report on human rights around the world – or at least he was until he surrendered what remained of his conscience to the man who gleefully and relentlessly mocked him as “Little Marco.”
Twelve years ago, then-Sen. Rubio praised the human rights report as a strong message to authoritarians that “the United States will stand with freedom-seeking people around the world.”
Rubio said the report played a vital role spotlighting “foreign governments' failure to respect citizens' fundamental rights … from the sexual exploitation of women and children to the denial of political rights to minorities.”
Now that he’s gained a seat closer to the presidency, though, Rubio’s view of the report seems to be meh.
In April, NPR and Politico both reported they had obtained documents instructing State Department employees to edit this year’s report to align with Trump administration policies and the president’s numerous executive orders.
While edits and changes in approach to the report aren’t unusual when a new president takes over, particularly one from the opposite party, the revisions being made by Trump’s team don’t appear be minor or routine.
Under these instructions, the report is to be stripped down to what the Trump administration interprets as the minimum required by law. Long-held U.S. principles are being redlined.
Diversity, equity and inclusion are out, of course. So are references to violence and discrimination against people who are LGBTQ+.
Numerous categories of abuse have been eliminated, according to NPR and Politico, including involuntary or coercive medical or psychological practices, gender-based violence, violence or threats against people with disabilities, discrimination against indigenous people and interference with privacy and internet freedom.
NPR reported that the memo includes a marked-up version of the report showing the deletion of a section on government corruption in Hungary, led by Viktor Orban, an authoritarian Trump has publicly and repeatedly praised as “a great man and a great leader.” Politico reported that sections on corruption in other nations are being deleted.
The draft is now in Rubio’s office and is expected to be released any day now, according to Politico.
The report is important and not just as a statement of U.S. foreign policy. As Politico’s Nahal Toosi described it, “The annual report is widely anticipated and read in capitals around the world, and it is relied upon heavily by advocacy organizations, lawyers and others who consider it a reliable, fact-based document. Asylum officers, for instance, use it to assess whether someone seeking protection has a credible fear of persecution should they be forced to return to their country.”
The latter point, as we all know, isn’t of interest to the Trump administration. Undocumented immigrants have been sent to a prison in Venezuela with well-documented human rights abuses. Rubio is revoking visas from foreign students without regard to what sort of life awaits them back home. ICE-led roundups have been sloppily and cruelly executed and have even targeted U.S. citizens.
Under the guise of driving out violent criminals, Rubio is overseeing an operation that jettisons good, freedom-seeking people to return lives of human rights abuses and even death. Rubio’s actions are all the more vile because he’s gained power in part by telling the story – the sometimes exaggerated story – of his family’s flight from Fidel Castro’s Cuba.
There’s a chance, however remote, that Rubio will ensure the final report accurately and, as comprehensively as possible, still reflects the state of human rights across the globe.
If it doesn’t, we can count on Democrats to condemn, with varying degrees of forcefulness, the reversal of decades of U.S. work to further freedom abroad.
Meanwhile, Republicans, including those who have long delighted in (rightfully) calling out abuses in communist countries, will face yet another test of their consciences, their souls.
Will they sit by meekly as Trump helps authoritarians cover up their crimes and nudges – shoves – our own country toward their way of life?
Or will Republicans finally speak up?
Probably not. Perhaps it’s time for our friends in Canada, the UK and the rest of Europe prepare their own annual reports with an expanded section on the United States.
Sadly, a separate volume may be needed before we done.