Former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley event urged every American never to embrace socialism at a Washington think tank, describing it as “a total disaster.”
“Socialism is a total disaster, and, as Americans, we must condemn it wherever it exists,” said the former Trump administration official at the Hudson Institute on Wednesday. “That is why it is truly amazing to see how socialism has become trendy in parts of America,” Haley added, according to the Washington Examiner.
These days, it seems like socialism is everywhere.” She added. “We must promise each other and future generations that America will never become a socialist country.”
The ABCs on why the conversation about capitalism and socialism matters and how it effects your everyday life. Listen to my recent speech at @HudsonInstitute here: https://t.co/ul3TcXOIj1
— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) February 27, 2020
“It’s in our colleges and universities. It’s in Congress, where an up-and-coming congresswoman says, ‘Capitalism is irredeemable,'” Haley said, referring to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.). “It’s at the highest levels of society and politics.”
She then focused on the leader in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, Bernie Sanders, who has been increasingly open about his socialist agenda.
“Right now, the Democratic presidential frontrunner is an avowed socialist named Bernie Sanders. Only in a prosperous country like America can people be so flippant about capitalism and so naïve about socialism.”
Sanders, 78, has come under fire for praising the regime of Fidel Castro, the Cuban dictator who imprisoned and killed dissidents during his decades in office.
Sanders said during a recent interview with CBS’s “60 Minutes” that it was “unfair to simply say everything is bad” about Castro’s regime.
“When Fidel Castro came into office, you know what he did? He had a massive literacy program. Is that a bad thing? Even though Fidel Castro did it?” Sanders said.
In response to criticism of his comments, the current leader of the Democratic field told the audience at the Gaillard Center in Charleston, “Of course you have a dictatorship in Cuba.”
Sanders said that he was only conveying what former President Barack Obama said previously about Cuba. He argued that candidates should “be honest about American foreign policy.”
“When dictatorships, whether it is the Chinese or the Cubans, do something good, you acknowledge that. But you don’t have to trade love letters with them,” he said.
Epoch Times reporter Zachary Stieber contributed to this report
