CHICAGO--Former Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper on Monday said there is an "authoritarian mentality" in the White House and the United States does not need its own "strongman," as he delivered the first major foreign policy address among two dozen Democrats vying for the 2020 presidential nomination.
"I think history clearly demonstrates that when you have a so-called strongman - a dictator - you don't have rule of law," Hickenlooper said when asked at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs if that was a better approach to foreign policy than multilateralism.
In his address, Hickenlooper said China "represents a generational challenge" for national security; that Russia "actively works against our interests" by propping up Bashar Hafez al-Assad in Syria and Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela; and that North Korea's nuclear program "threatens its region and beyond."
"From Moscow to Beijing, from Ankara to Caracas and beyond, authoritarian strongmen now threaten not only the rights of their own people, but also the foundations of international peace," Hickenlooper said.
"While no invading army is storming America's shores today, this authoritarian mentality has already breached our defenses. Indeed, it has occupied the White House. We have a president who is not just ignoring many of the threats to our national security, he is aiding and abetting them," he added.
Hickenlooper said President Donald Trump has "fawned over" North Korea's Kim Jong Un and treated Russia's Vladimir Putin "as his puppet master."
Hickenlooper also criticized Trump for threatening to pull out of the NATO alliance, abandoning the Paris climate accord and withdrawing from trade negotiations. "We cannot hope to go back to the way the world was before Trump, too much has changed," Hickenlooper said.
Trump campaign spokeswoman Erin Perrine disputed Hickenlooper's assessment of the president, saying that his record on foreign policy is unquestionably a strength. "The Trump sanctions on Russia are the toughest. He also imposed strong sanctions on North Korea and Iran, brought the North Koreans to the negotiating table, decimated the ISIS caliphate, stood up to China for decades of unfair trade practices, strengthened America's trade deals around the world, improved NAFTA, and steered NATO on the right path," Perrine said in an email.
