Summers: Trump’s Attacks on Amazon ‘A Mussolini Tactic,’ Pro-Business Republicans ‘Would Be Berserk’ if a Dem Did it

On Thursday’s broadcast of CNN’s “New Day,” Lawrence Summers, who served as Treasury Secretary under President Clinton, stated President Trump’s attacks on Amazon are “a Mussolini tactic,” and something pro-business Republicans would “be berserk about” if a Democrat did.

Summers said, “Picking winners and losers is problematic. Going on jihads with the power of the federal government against companies whose CEO’s private activity he doesn’t find congenial, that’s not the stuff of a democracy. That’s the stuff of much more totalitarian countries. Now, we’ve got all kinds of safeguards here, and I don’t think we’re going to become a fascist country, but make no mistake, that’s a Mussolini tactic, not an American tactic.”

He continued, “And it’s one that’s potentially quite dangerous for our business confidence. Are there issues about predatory pricing or whatever, that appropriate experts should be monitoring with respect to Amazon? Of course. But for the president of the United States to go on an attack against a particular company, motivated by a private holding of its CEO, that is not the American way. And that is something that should make Americans — and frankly, it should make pro-business Republicans, who see most strongly the benefits of American corporations, it should make them most nervous. It’s a kind of thing that if a liberal, progressive Democrat did, they would be berserk about how dangerous it was for the economy. This is something that’s very problematic.”

(h/t NewsBusters)

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