The White House wants to boost global commitments to human rights and fighting corruption. But as the summit convenes, American democracy itself is under pressure.

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President Biden had a call to action today, summoning like-minded world leaders to discuss how to stand up to countries like China and Russia and to make commitments to boosting democracy around the globe. It's part of the two-day virtual summit for democracy, an issue Biden considers one of the most pressing concerns of his time. NPR's Scott Detrow has been watching. He joins us now from the White House. And, Scott, to begin, the president has said he sees the state of democracy as one of the most critical challenges facing the world right now. What's he hoping to accomplish with what is essentially a giant Zoom meeting?

SCOTT DETROW, BYLINE: Yeah. You know, this was initially a big campaign promise. He would hold this summit of democracy. Sounds like a lofty thing, right? But the pandemic kept lingering, as we all know, and this became a much more commonplace virtual summit, which means Biden spoke at the beginning, as he often does, from this sound stage of sorts the administration has constructed in the executive office building for these types of virtual events, which really does not exactly have the feel of a major galvanizing event. But still, Biden made it clear when he spoke that he is worried about authoritarianism and populism gaining steam. And he said something he said many times, that democratic governments need to prove that they can solve people's problems to win back trust from voters.

CORNISH: Of course, the backdrop to this here in the U.S. is that, earlier this year, the Capitol was attacked by people trying to overturn the presidential election, among other things. How does that affect the U.S.' position here?

DETROW: Yeah. Just to put it in this framing, like, think about it - a former president repeatedly trying to undermine the electoral process and lying to deny the fact that he lost a presidential election is very much a thing you would see in a place where democracy is struggling. I talked to Steven Levitsky about this. He is the co-author of a book that Biden report - regularly cited throughout the presidential campaign called "How Democracies Die." He said, look, that is all of more reason to have a summit like this. He said that Biden had an opportunity to make an unusual speech from a U.S. president, saying, look, it's a problem in America, too. Biden did not really do that. He only said a few vague things about these challenges. But when Vice President Harris spoke at the end of the day, she was pretty direct about all of this.

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VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS: January 6 looms large in our collective conscience, and the anti-voter laws that many states have passed are part of an intentional effort to exclude Americans from participating in our democracy.

CORNISH: But did you hear any details - right? - about how the Biden administration wants to address them?

DETROW: Yeah, I mean, a few, but nothing really new here. Both Biden and Harris specifically mentioned two voting rights bills in front of Congress, ways that would counter this wave of voter restriction laws. Those bills are, of course, stalled in the Senate because Republicans are filibustering them, and there is no plan from the administration to change that fact. When it comes to the rest of the world, Biden announced about $425 million in various commitments to international democracy efforts. That's really not a lot of money when it comes to big government funding projects, especially spread among dozens of different initiatives. And we're told by a White House official only about a third of that money has been approved by Congress yet, so the rest would need to pass in future bills.

CORNISH: Given how difficult it's been to pass his domestic agenda, what's the appetite to spend more money for democracy abroad?

DETROW: Really unclear. I think what voters and the White House are really focused on right now is inflation. A lot of Democratic allies feel that way, too. Americans are upset about it. They blame Biden. And you saw a lot of defensiveness from the White House today ahead of a new consumer price report coming out tomorrow that's expected to show more price increases. They were really out there saying, hey, look, the economy is moving in the right way. Look at all of these economic indicators, including low unemployment. Things are going well. So you could tell that that's what they're worried about.

CORNISH: That's NPR White House correspondent Scott Detrow. Thank you.

DETROW: Sure thing. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

Tags: democracy  China  Brazil  Russia  Joe Biden