‘The Trump Of It All’: CNN Panel Sounds The Alarm On Democracy Backsliding Globally Amid South Korea Chaos

CNN’s anchor Dana Bash discussed the breaking news out of South Korea on Tuesday, in which President Yoon Suk Yeol made a shock declaration of martial law. Yoon would later retract amid protests and outcry, but Bash and her panel discussed the undeniable trend of democracy receding around the globe and offered a warning for Americans at home.

Bash first asked MJ Lee to explain some of the context surrounding what was going on in South Korea.

“Yeah. You know, I was saying this in the last hour just for context here. The reason that this is going to be just so I think emotionally jarring for the folks in Korea is because this is not really distant history. The fact that this kind of thing could happen in the streets of Seoul for folks who are in my parent’s generation and certainly my grandparents’ generation, this is what they lived through, our military, Korea,” Lee began, adding:

I was born in South Korea the very last year that there was a military dictatorship, and soon after I was born, there was the first Democratic presidential election that elected Chun Doo-hwan. And obviously the country has evolved and developed so much since then. But we now talk about South Korea as one of the most important democratic countries and a vibrant democratic country in Asia that we look to and point to often as a model.

So just seeing these headlines, seeing these scenes, knowing that this is possible, I think just in and of itself in the context of South Korean history is important. Obviously, we around the table should talk about why this should be an important thing for American support. Well, that’s what I want to particularly given that Donald Trump is about to be president in a number of weeks, somebody who has said he wants to use the military to go after his own enemies.

As the conversation continued, Bash turned to CNN’s Phil Mattingly and asked, “Well, on that note, I was just told that President Biden was asked about it as he finished his speech. His response was, ‘I’m just getting briefed.’ Can you pick up on that? But also talk about the Trump of it all.”

“Yeah, The geopolitical moment within which the president-elect will be taking office is extraordinary. And I say that because, you know, to MJ’s great point and John’s great point as well. You know, President Yoon has been an extraordinarily close ally of the Biden administration for all of his domestic turmoil and foibles, which the administration really doesn’t want to weigh in too much,” Mattingly replied, adding:

He has been critical to their Indo-Pacific strategy, the relationship that they were able to establish between the Japanese leader Kishida, and President Yoon was really an underappreciated success, I think, diplomatically, of this White House. And that might give some window into the reticence you’ve seen of them to come out and say something more forcefully.

Although I think to MJ, his point of what I’ve talked to is just stunned that this actually happened. However, this underscores the fact this isn’t just a South Korea issue. This is a leaders across the alliances of the United States. The critical kind of pillars of Western democracy are in bad shape right now. I mean, you think about President Trump, President-elect Trump is about to head over to France, where Emmanuel Macron’s government is falling apart and there’s about to be a no-confidence vote.

And I think the fact that the president-elect is taking power at a moment where he clearly feels more emboldened than he has ever felt based on the electoral results, based on what we’ve seen on Capitol Hill with his nominees that are not in any way hewing to kind of a traditional norm in terms of what they represent. This president-elect is coming to power, not just thinking he can do what he wants and what he’s said he plans to do domestically, but also internationally.

And South Korea is not an insignificant piece of his kind of broader geopolitical strategy, which diverges very sharply from the norms of the United States. Now, that’s what he ran on. That’s what he was elected on. Yeah, do your thing, man. But this is a very different moment than it was in 2017.

Watch the clip above via CNN.