From PolitiFact:
In his second State of the Union address, President Joe Biden touted his administration’s accomplishments — domestic job growth, drug price cuts for seniors and infrastructure improvements.
But he also mentioned something else that, he claimed, has improved globally since he took office: Democracy.
Talking about his efforts to limit the power of authoritarian leaders in countries like China and Russia, Biden said, “We face serious challenges across the world. But in the past two years, democracies have become stronger, not weaker. Autocracies have grown weaker, not stronger.”
We wanted to know: Has the state of global democracy improved in the last couple of years since Biden took office? Have autocracies weakened?
The answer is: Not really. Biden’s statement lacks evidence, and many researchers and human rights groups say that democracy has been waning around the world for several years.
Experts said it’s difficult to determine whether Biden — who has made bolstering democracy a focus of his presidency — has had any impact.
PolitiFact reached out to the White House for more information but did not hear back. …
Read the full story at PolitiFact, and listen to an interview with PolitiFact Texas’ Nusaiba Mizan in the audio player above.
Radio interview produced by Sean Saldana
