Former Colorado governor and Democratic presidential candidate John Hickenlooper was booed while speaking at the California Democratic Party Convention on Saturday after he denounced socialism.
"If we want to beat Donald Trump and achieve big progressive goals, socialism is not the answer," Hickenlooper told the audience, prompting boos. "I was reelected in a purple state in 2014, one of the worst years for democrats in a quarter-century," he continued to loud expressions of disapproval.
Later, Hickenlooper criticized far-left proposals on healthcare and the environment, leading to more boos.
"We shouldn't try to achieve universal coverage by removing private insurance from over 150 million Americans," Hickenlooper said. "We should not try to tackle climate change by guaranteeing every american a government job. Hold on, hold on. As the Democratic Party, we have to create a vision for this country. I want to give Americans a reason to look forward to tomorrow."
Democrat John Hickenlooper:
'Socialism is not the answer"
'We shouldn’t try to achieve universal coverage by removing private insurance from 150 million Americans"
'We shouldn't try to tackle climate change by guaranteeing every American a gov job"
Crowd boos loudly each time pic.twitter.com/Q3Oosgd8Wf
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) June 1, 2019
Earlier last week, Hickenlooper argued Democrats need to "distance" themselves from socialism to beat President Donald Trump in 2020.
"If we're not careful, if we don't distance ourselves from socialism, I think we're going to allow—we're going to turn the election over, a victory over to the worst president in the history of this country," Hickenlooper told MSNBC's Rachel Maddow.
Hickenlooper has previously expressed opposition to the Green New Deal, which would guarantee a federal job, saying it "sets unachievable goals" and arguing the United States lacks the "technology needed to reach ‘net-zero greenhouse emissions' in 10 years."
Despite his denunciation of socialism, Hickenlooper evaded the question of whether he considered himself a capitalist during the early stages of his campaign.