Possible GOP 2024 hopeful Nikki Haley warns that 2020 marked the year 'socialism went mainstream' - as Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders both back proposal to give Americans $2,000 stimulus checks
Nikki Haley, the ex-governor and former U.N. ambassador who'll likely run for the GOP nomination in 2024, released a stern essay Monday warning that 2020 marked the year that 'socialism went mainstream.'
'The dangerous ideology, which has failed everywhere it has been tried and ruined countless lives, is on its way to becoming the default economic policy of the Democratic Party. This terrifying trend threatens the future of every American,' the former South Carolina governor tweeted.
The lines were from an essay on her political action committee's website.
Haley's comments came at an awkward moment in Washington as Republican President Donald Trump and self-proclaimed democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders interests have become politically aligned.
An essay posted to Nikki Haley's political action committee's website warned that 2020 marked that year that 'socialism went mainstream'
AWKWARD TIMING: Haley's comments came at a strange moment as President Donald Trump (left) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (right) are pushing for $2,000 checks for Americans
Trump shocked both sides of the aisle last week when he released a web video saying he might veto the giant spending and COVID-19 stimulus package because he objected to the $600 stimulus checks.
The Republican president said he wanted Congress to re-send him the bill with $2,000 for individuals and $4,000 for American couples instead.
Late Sunday night, the president relented and signed it.
But on Monday night the House, with a two-thirds bipartisan majority, passed a stand-alone bill upping the check amount to $2,000.
Earlier Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the chamber's top Republican, blocked a Democrat-led effort for the $2,000 bill to easily pass.
Sanders - who along with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Haley warned about in her essay and tweets - said he would filibuster another vote the Senate must take, to override Trump's veto on the massive defense bill, in order to get Americans the $2,000 checks that the president wants.
As The Washington Post's Jennifer Rubin pointed out, Haley made no mention of the Trump-backed effort, writing 'socialism apparently does not extend to giving out $2,000 checks to Americans or extending loans to airlines, as Trump has advocated.'
Instead her essay looks to the last two Democratic presidential primaries, which Sanders both times lost, saying they're an example that the 'socialist left is more powerful than at any point in recent memory.'
Haley also said the Democrats now back 'a government health plan that would destroy private health care' and an energy plan 'like the Green New Deal.'
President-elect Joe Biden ran on wanting to keep private health insurance, but supplementing it with a 'public option,' which was in contrast to more liberal positions like Sanders of wanting Medicare-for-all.
Biden has pitched an ambitious climate plan, but purposely differentiated it from the Green New Deal, which is supported by Ocasio-Cortez and other progressives on Capitol Hill.
No comments