Bernie Sanders has praised Fidel Castro’s ‘massive literacy program’, standing by comments he made praising the dictator’s rule of Cuba in the 1980s.
The Democratic frontrunner and socialist, 78, defended the Communist regime as ‘not all bad’ during a wide-ranging 60 Minutes interview which aired Sunday.
During the interview, he told Anderson Cooper: ‘We’re very opposed to the authoritarian nature of Cuba but you know, it’s unfair to simply say everything is bad. You know?
‘When Fidel Castro came into office, you know what he did? He had a massive literacy program. Is that a bad thing? Even though Fidel Castro did it?’
Sanders had said of dictator Castro in 1985: ‘He educated their kids, gave them health care, totally transformed the society, you know?’
A Democratic congresswoman from Florida said Monday that Sen. Bernie Sanders’ partial defense of Fidel Castro’s Cuban revolution was “absolutely unacceptable.”
“As the first South American immigrant member of Congress who proudly represents thousands of Cuban Americans, I find Senator Bernie Sanders’ comments on Castro’s Cuba absolutely unacceptable,” Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell wrote in a pair of tweets.
“The Castro regime murdered and jailed dissidents, and caused unspeakable harm to too many South Florida families. To this day, it remains an authoritarian regime that oppresses its people, subverts the free press, and stifles a free society,” she added.
“I’m hoping that in the future, Senator Sanders will take time to speak to some of my constituents before he decides to sing the praises of a murderous tyrant like Fidel Castro,” Rep. Donna Shalala, D-Fla., whose district in Miami has a large population of Cuban-born residents who escaped the communist regime, wrote on Twitter Sunday.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., a Cuban American whose parents immigrated to the U.S. from Cuba before Castro took over, lashed out at Sanders on Twitter on Sunday night. “Likely Dem nominee praised the supposed ‘achievements’ Castro regime. And he’s wrong about why people didn’t overthrow Castro. It’s not because ‘he educated their kids, gave them health care.’ It‘s because his opponents were jailed, murdered or exiled.”
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13 Responses
Some commentators on this site (you know who you are) would agree with Crazy Bernie.
hope and pray this filthy America hating communist bastard is nominated by the socialist DemonRats,because Trump will wipe the floor with this filthy sewer rat,it will be the biggest landslide win in U.S history.
We cannot even imagine the anti-semitism this filthy sewer rat is causing all over this country,as hundreds of millions of loyal and patriotic Americans watch how this traitorous communist Jew is trying single handedly to destroy this blessed country of ours
I imagine how upset you must be when the man who has real concentration camps and is the killer of Otto Warmbier was praised by Trump.
“Why shouldn’t I like him (Kim)? ”
“He’s a real personality and he’s very smart. He’s sharp as you can be, and he’s a real leader, and he’s pretty mercurial.”
“Chariman Kim has a great and beautiful vision for his country”
“We fell in love.”
And Mussalini ysv”z got the Italian trains running on time.
Socialists always believe that those not accepting their ideology need to be reeducated.
And I’m old enough to remember when the Democrats believed in democracy.
As if this was all “free”. What paid for it? The common accepted story is that Castro simply took property/assets without compensating the owners, and on top of that received loads of money from the Soviet Union (which itself stole that money from the rightful owners). Was there freedom to choose courses? To choose lifestyle? Anyone who did not conform strictly to both ideological dictates and to dictated fashion was not around for long. This was not “education”. It was “indoctrination”. And woe betide anyone not in lock-step. This was not self-sustaining. When the money-faucet from the Soviet Union dried up, so did the country. In fact, to make some income Cuba went capitalist on its educational system charging foreigners to take courses.
Lenin and Hitler also did some good things. But actually Castro’s supposed achievements in literacy and health care are even more comparable to Hitler’s “economic miracle” of the 1930s, and to Mussolini’s improvements in railway scheduling — they were all fake. We now know that Mussolini “made the trains run on time” by reprinting the timetables after the trains arrived, so whatever time the train arrived was when it was expected. We know Germany’s economy in the mid-1930s was actually in terrible shape, and all the wonderful statistics published were false. And Castro’s literacy and medical statistics were exactly the same. BEFORE Castro, Cuba had the highest literacy and the best medical system in Latin America. All Castro did was refrain from completely destroying that, and then take credit for it.
The Nazis did many good things too.
In the footsteps of Obama Yimach Shemo
No surprise here, people. He’s a communist. He’s got such warm feelings for Israel too, right?
Jews, wake up. Please. If Bernie wins the nomination, please rethink your instinctive knee-jerk support for the Democrat party.
this is stupidity, sanders is saying that sometimes bad people do good things, which is true, the only reasons to argue that is if 1, your just smearing. 2, your too stupid to figure out the fine line
jackk, since you are going off topic….. Pres Obama also held illegals in containment camps and deported more illegals than Pres Trump. Didn’t bother you then, but bothers you now. So I guess we have several “dictators”, huh…..
He is a socialist. Socialists favor confiscating other people’s stuff, and “re-educating” those who don’t toe the party line. It is unreasonable to expect Sanders to criticize Castro (or Mao, or Stalin), just as it would be unfair to expect the pope to be critical of you know who.