Hickenlooper calls child separation ‘kidnapping,’ but says ‘socialism’ won’t beat Trump
As the only geologist to take the stage Thursday, John Hickenlooper said on Twitter that he was ready to “rock” the Democratic presidential debate.
From the get-go, Hickenlooper criticized the only Democratic Socialist running for president — Bernie Sanders — by saying his fellow liberal candidates needed to “clearly define” the differences between socialism and democratic ideals or face Republicans knocking them around.
“I think that the bottom line is if we don’t clearly define that we are not socialists the Republicans are going to come at us every way they can and call us socialists,” he said.
He referenced his education as a scientist when describing climate change as a crisis in need of immediate attention. He talked about his past work as a business owner when describing his “scrappy” demeanor.
He also referred to President Donald Trump’s policy of separating migrant children from their families after being detained at the U.S. border as “kidnapping,” earning loud applause at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Miami.
“Certainly the images we’ve seen this week just compound the emotional impact that the world is judging us by,” he said, referring to the photo of a migrant father and his 2-year-old daughter washing up dead near the border on Monday. “If you ever told me any time in my life that this country would sanction federal agents to take children from the arms of their parents, put them in cages, actually put them up for adoption — in Colorado we call that kidnapping — I would have told you it was unbelievable.”
If elected, he said he would reform U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to act in a more humanitarian way, ensure there are sufficient facilities to keep families together and to provide food, shelter and medical care to migrants.
Hickenlooper attempted to poke holes in some of the more progressive ideas Sanders and other Democrats have proposed, like a Green New Deal to curb climate change and the elimination of private health insurance through Medicare for All.
He said turning to socialism would likely guarantee four more years of Trump.
“If you look at the Green New Deal, which I admire the sense of urgency and how important it is to do climate change… you can’t promise every American a government job,” he said. “If you want to get universal healthcare coverage, I believe that healthcare is a right and not a privilege, but you can’t expect to eliminate private insurance for 180 million people, many of whom don’t want to give it up.”
The leading Democrats on Thursday split along similar lines, with South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg and former Vice President Joe Biden backing an expansion of the Affordable Care Act and California Sen. Kamala Harris and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders saying they would eliminate private health insurance.
Hickenlooper does not support Medicare for All, but wants to ensure universal healthcare coverage in the U.S. with a public option. He supports the concept of the Green New Deal, and initiatives to combat climate change by shifting the U.S. economy away from carbon emissions.
But he says the resolution proposed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York, and Sen. Ed Markey, D-Massachusetts, sets “unachievable goals” like guaranteeing jobs for every person in the U.S. and relying too much on the federal government to fix the climate crisis.
Hickenlooper stood across the stage from his former chief of staff as Denver mayor, Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet, but the two did not interact.
Hickenlooper, 67, served as mayor of Denver from 2003 to 2011 and then as governor of Colorado from 2011 to 2019.
Before that, he was a restaurant entrepreneur and executive and a professional geologist. As governor of Colorado, he approved legislation banning high-capacity rifle magazines and putting universal background checks into place. He wants to replicate that on a federal level, along with added age restrictions for buying firearms.
This story was originally published June 27, 2019 at 11:41 PM.