RNC’s Henry Barbour: Obama’s a ‘Socialist’

Republican National Committee member Henry Barbour, who’s also a top party strategist, called President Barack Obama a “socialist” Monday in an interview with The Hill newspaper.

Barbour, nephew of former RNC Chairman Haley Barbour, co-authored the RNC’s plan to come back from last year’s electoral defeats.

He spoke to The Hill about the need for the GOP to improve its candidate selection process.

“If we want to focus on a handful of issues and try to impact some primaries and lose the general elections, that’s really not going to affect public policy,” Barbour said.

“We all want to make America strong economically and militarily and every other way, but you can’t do that if you’re not in office. We’ve got a socialist in office right now. How’s that working for us?”

When questioned about using that term, Barbour didn’t back down. “I don't care. I mean, look, I think he’s a socialist. I’m not saying he doesn’t love our country.”