Marco Rubio compares Kamala Harris to Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) compared Vice President Kamala Harris to former Cuban President Fidel Castro and former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez after she announced her plans to implement the first-ever federal ban on “corporate price-gouging” in grocery stores and the food industry.

The policy proposal, announced on Wednesday, is one of the most progressive economic policies suggested by Harris so far, leading to harsh criticism from Republicans, who drew parallels with socialist governments.

“Kamala wants to bring to America the policies of leaders and countries millions of people have fled #PriceControls,” Rubio posted on X with a picture of Chavez and Castro.

Trump echoed Rubio’s sentiment in a Thursday press conference, saying Harris was trying to implement “communist price controls,” which would cause food shortages.

“She’s running on the Maduro plan,” he continued, referring to the current president of Venezuela. “Like something straight out of Venezuela or the Soviet Union.”

Nicolás Maduro is the president of Venezuela and a member of the United Socialist Party. Price controls were first implemented in 2003 and expanded under Maduro in 2014. The practice is related to socialism since it is the political theory that promotes government control of the means of production.

In a statement, the Harris campaign said the vice president would implement “the first-ever federal ban on price gouging on food and groceries — setting clear rules of the road to make clear that big corporations can’t unfairly exploit consumers to run up excessive corporate profits on food and groceries.”

The price of groceries as of June was up 1.1% from June 2023. In all of 2023, food prices were up 5.8%.