Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, one of 23 candidates for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, warned Monday that if his party doesn't stand against socialism, President Donald Trump will be re-elected.
"If we don't stand up and say that we Democrats don't stand for socialism, we're going to end up re-electing the worst president this country's ever had," Hickenlooper told NPR's "Morning Edition."
He also said he does not back some of his party's major party proposals, like the Green New Deal or Medicare-for-all health plans.
"I don't think we're going to address climate change by guaranteeing every American a federal job, which is what part of the Green New Deal was," Hickenlooper said. "I don't think we're going to address the spiraling inflation in health care by forcibly telling 150 million people that we're going to take away their private insurance. These are what a lot of Americans look at as facets or aspects of socialism."
Instead, Hickenlooper called for a focus on economic issues, not social policies.
"Certainly we want to address income inequality," said Hickenlooper. "Absolutely we want to make sure that women have a right to choose, that civil rights and social justice are addressed aggressively, but we've also got to recognize to win in Ohio and Michigan and North Carolina and Wisconsin, we're going to have to get more to those kitchen table issues that have to do with somebody's job, or how many jobs they're having to work just to balance a household budget."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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