President Biden denounced socialism during a Thursday press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, taking a swipe at the ideology that an increasing number of …
President Biden denounced socialism during a Thursday press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, taking a swipe at the ideology that an increasing number of fellow Democrats embrace. “Communism is a failed system, a universally failed system. And I don’t see socialism as a very useful substitute, but that’s another story,” Biden said in the White House East Room. Biden denounced the left-wing ideologies in response to a question about Cuba, where the largest anti-government protests in decades erupted Sunday. He separately slammed “phony populism.” With extremely narrow margins in Congress, Biden’s legislative agenda has relied on a delicate balance between centrist Democrats and self-identified socialists. Biden this week endorsed a $3.5 trillion bill drafted by socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont to supplement a pending $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill. Biden also said at the press conference that the US government is considering ways to restore internet access in Cuba to get around a government blackout. “We’re considering whether we have the technological ability to reinstate that access,” he said. Although socialism is increasingly popular among Democrats, the term is politically toxic in much of the country and former President Donald Trump last year boosted Latino support for Republicans by claiming that Democratic policies would turn the US into a larger version of Cuba and Venezuela.
