Three Southern Republican state attorneys general rallied Tuesday against the Democratic presidential candidates in Charleston, South Carolina, saying they are socialists with a philosophy akin to Nazis who want to turn Americans into communists and eliminate American freedoms.
South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr and Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge gathered ahead of Tuesday night’s Democratic debate to support President Trump in an unusually strong display of political advocacy by state law enforcement officers.
Mr. Wilson dubbed the trio “the SEC caucus,” in reference to the collegiate Southeastern Conference’s prominence in their home states, and said they were “duty bound to support our president and [fight] the philosophical views espoused by this ultra-left wing and socialist party.”
“So as the attorney general for South Carolina and as the attorney general of their respective states, we have all committed ourselves as a group of soldiers in the last redoubt to defend our republic from the tyranny of those who want to take our government the way of the socialist,” Mr. Wilson said Tuesday. “And socialism is on a very slippery plane because it slides right into communism, it slides into fascism, it slides into the very type of fundamental beliefs that the Nazis had; it was a socialist government. And I’m not comparing them to those types of dictators, but their philosophy is the kind of philosophy that is, it runs contrary to what the founders and framers of our Constitution envisioned for our republic.”
Mr. Wilson said Sen. Bernard Sanders’ frontrunner status will push all future Democratic candidates to what he perceives as the socialist and ultra-liberal left.
Mr. Carr agreed with Mr. Wilson’s depiction of socialism as a pathway to eliminating freedoms and said there was a stark difference between President Trump and the Democratic field on the issues of abortion, regulation and the role of government in people’s lives.
“I think it’s important to go back to what Alan said, too, there is a slippery slope when you start espousing socialist principles,” Mr. Carr said. “There is no freedom of religion, there is no freedom of the press, there is no freedom of speech, there is no right to assemble, there is no right to bear arms, there is no right to a fair, open, and public trial. And that’s where this conversation is going and that’s dangerous and that should really terrify folks.”
The trio of GOP attorneys general singled out Mr. Sanders, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, former Vice President Joseph R. Biden and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg as candidates who are particularly reflective of the Democratic Party’s new trajectory. Ms. Rutledge said Americans soon would find out whether wealthy liberals could “buy an election.”
“To think that everything that [Mr. Sanders] and Sen. Warren and everyone on that stage tonight is wanting to give away, what they’re really giving away is our American freedoms and we’ve got to stand up against it,” Ms. Rutledge said.
“And again the irony that all of these people are asking Americans to put aside our American values to turn us into a socialist, then communist country, that will fail and to set all that aside while they are in fact wealthy and trying to buy an election and to reshape the threads of America.”
The political message of the three Republican AGs is the latest escalation in the aggressive politicking of states’ top law enforcement officials. Mr. Wilson, Mr. Carr and Ms. Rutledge were among a broader GOP coalition of 21 state attorneys general who signed a first-of-its-kind “friend of the Senate” brief in support of Mr. Trump against Congress’ impeachment proceedings.
Democratic state attorneys general have grown much more political in recent years, too. In November 2019, the Democratic Attorneys General Association created a new litmus test for every candidate seeking its endorsement: support the pro-choice agenda on abortion.
None of the three attorneys general speaking in South Carolina on Tuesday is facing reelection in 2020.
Mr. Sanders’ campaign did not immediately respond to request for comment on the criticism of his campaign.
• Ryan Lovelace can be reached at rlovelace@washingtontimes.com.
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