Pence tears into ‘socialism,’ Democrats

OXON HILL, Md. — Vice President Mike Pence warned Friday that what he labeled “socialist” policies embraced by Democrats, including presidential candidates, risk throwing the country into the kind of economic free-fall and autocratic grip ravaging Venezuela.

Pence also said President Donald Trump was right to leave the negotiating table with North Korea on Thursday, and vowed that the United States will insist on eradicating the nuclear weapons threat in future talks.

Pence mocked Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., a Democratic candidate challenging Trump in 2020, as an out-of-touch socialist, and the health -care and energy policies endorsed by several others among the 2020 Democratic field as big government.

“Democrats openly advocate an economic system that has impoverished millions of people around the world,” Pence said in an address to the annual Conservative Political Action Conference.

“Under the guise of ‘Medicare-for-all’ and a Green New Deal, Democrats are embracing the same tired economic theories that have impoverished nations and stifled the liberties of millions over the past century,” Pence said. “That system is socialism.”

Trump also labeled Democrats as socialists, and accused them of wanting to turn the United States into Venezuela. Pence broadened that accusation Friday, tying the 2020 field to liberal agenda items that not all Democrats endorse.

Trump will address the annual conference today.

“What Medicare-for-all really means is quality health care for none,” Pence said. “And the only thing green about the so-called Green New Deal is how much green it’s going to cost taxpayers if these people ever pass it into law.”

The idea that the new Democratic agenda constituted “socialism” — and that if enacted, it would send the United States tumbling toward the fate of Venezuela — was dominant throughout the conference. Pence invoked “socialism” 18 times, warning that Sanders was writing the party’s agenda.

Pence got louder applause for references to Trump’s promised border wall and antiabortion policies, and also received sustained applause for declaring that anti-Semitism “must be universally condemned.”

Pence urged Latin American leaders in Colombia on Monday to do more to oppose the socialist government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and met with opposition leader Juan Guaido. The United States and most Western nations recognize Guaido as the country’s legitimate leader, but Maduro retains control.

“We know where socialism leads. You want socialism? Just look at Venezuela,” Pence said Friday.

“Venezuela was once one of the richest and most vibrant democracies in the Western Hemisphere, but under Maduro’s socialist rule, it has become one of the poorest and most despotic,” Pence said, citing the country’s 90 percent poverty rate and millions of refugees who have fled.

“The struggle in Venezuela is between dictatorship and democracy, between socialism and freedom,” he said.

Although Pence and Trump have repeatedly said that military force remains an option to deliver humanitarian aid in Venezuela or defend U.S. interests, the administration appears to have stepped back from that idea this week.

Pence did not repeat the “all options” language at the conference Friday. Elliott Abrams, the State Department’s special envoy for Venezuela, rejected criticism from Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov suggesting that the United States is gunning for military intervention.

“I don’t think he actually believes that we’re attempting to do that, and I think, as you know, we are not attempting to do that,” Abrams said.

“We continue to say and we always will that all options are on the table because they always are. But I think anyone who actually looks at American policy in Venezuela could not reach that conclusion.”

Abrams also declined to comment Friday on a tweet from Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., suggesting that Maduro could meet the same fate as Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, who was executed.

“I’m not going to get into that other than to say that I think that dictatorships come to an end. Some last for a very long time, others a much shorter time,” Abrams told reporters. “This one in Venezuela will also come to an end. We hope that it comes to an end quickly and peacefully.”