During a Fox News town hall, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said he doesn’t regret praising Fidel Castro and Cuba’s literacy programs.
“There are a few moments in races that seem like turning points. Many experts looked at that moment on ‘60 Minutes’ when you talked about Fidel Castro’s literacy program as a turning point in this race. Do you regret at all saying what you said at that time in this race?” asked anchor Bret Baier.
“No,” Sanders said. “Look, I have spent my entire life fighting for working people and fighting for democracy.”
Bernie Sanders defends, doesn't regret praising Fidel Castrohttps://t.co/U7KFs5rLfp pic.twitter.com/kNCl8WDbWt
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) March 9, 2020
“If you check my record, I have condemned authoritarianism, whether it’s in the Soviet Union, whether it’s in Cuba, whatever, whether it’s in Saudi Arabia, they’re not having too many free elections there,” Sanders said.
Sanders’s record, however, does not show him condemning authoritarianism. Instead, it shows Sanders praising authoritarian regimes such as the Soviet Union, Cuba, and Venezuela.
In 1986, Sanders said he was “very excited” by the Castro revolution and called Cuba a “model for what society should be.” On his honeymoon to the Soviet Union, he fawned over the culture. Sanders also made the case in favor of breadlines in Nicaragua.
“It’s funny, sometimes American journalists talk about how bad a country is, that people are lining up for food. That is a good thing! In other countries people don’t line up for food: The rich get the food and the poor starve to death,” Sanders said.
Sanders also refuses to call Venezuelan Nicolas Maduro a dictator, instead advocating against U.S. intervention in the aftermath of Venezuela’s downfall.
