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Bernie Sanders defends Fidel Castro's socialist Cuba: 'Unfair to simply say everything is bad'
Fox News ^ | February 23, 2020 | Vandana Rambaran

Posted on 02/23/2020 6:49:34 PM PST by karpov

Sen. Bernie Sanders, the frontrunner for the Democrats' presidential nomination, doubled down on his support for some of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro's policies, saying in an interview that aired Sunday, "it's unfair to simply say everything is bad."

Speaking to CBS News' "60 Minutes," Sanders, a self-proclaimed democratic socialist, pointed to social welfare programs introduced under Castro's regime that he described as redeeming, despite the communist dictator's often repressive human-rights violations against Cubans.

"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 told Anderson Cooper.

Fidel Castro relinquished power to his brother, Raúl, in 2011; Fidel died in 2016.

Some Republicans jumped on Sanders' comments. "It really makes a difference when those you murder at the firing squad can read & write," Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, tweeted.

In a resurfaced speech given at the University of Vermont in 1986, Sanders praised the socialist policies implemented in Cuba by the Castro regime and criticized bipartisan efforts in the U.S. to tamp down on Castro's spread of communism.

While Sanders said in the new interview he "condemns" any human rights violations Castro committed, he also took aim at President Trump for his unlikely friendships with some dictators or strongman leaders, including North Korea's Kim Jong Un and Russia's Vladimir Putin

"I do not think that Kim Jong Un is a good friend," Sanders said. "I don't trade love letters with a murdering dictator. Vladimir Putin, not a great friend of mine."

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...


TOPICS: Breaking News; Cuba; Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; Politics/Elections; US: Florida; US: Vermont
KEYWORDS: 2020; 60minutes; bernie; berniesanders; castro; communist; cuba; fidelcastro; sanders
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To: gundog

Free healthcare when there is NO healthcare is very easy to provide!!!


61 posted on 02/23/2020 8:35:20 PM PST by Trump Girl Kit Cat (Yosemite Sam raising hell)
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To: RummyChick

Interesting? When you get replacement parts from Mexican junk yards? I guess so.


62 posted on 02/23/2020 8:48:29 PM PST by SanchoP (DC is the deep state.)
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To: karpov

The attack signal has been given to go after Crazy Bernie.


63 posted on 02/23/2020 8:57:44 PM PST by Ken H (Best SOTU ever!)
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To: karpov
Not sure if Bernie's strategy is to play up Kooba to play down Russia, or if he's such a lunatic that he thinks making fresh hay on Cuba somehow innoculates him from his older, wilder pro-communist stuff that Trump is gonna ram down his throat in ads.

But then Bernie's campaign manager isn't just a Fellow Traveler but also a mooselimb, and probably considered this interview as a Bernie dog whistle to all the subversives in the US.

64 posted on 02/23/2020 10:01:42 PM PST by StAnDeliver (CNN's Dana B: "Show of hands: Coverage for undocumented immigrants?" ***all Democrat hands raised***)
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To: stuck_in_new_orleans

Hushhhh!! Be patient.


65 posted on 02/23/2020 10:02:25 PM PST by Degaston
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To: karpov
'Unfair to simply say everything is bad'

True. I understand that the weather is still pretty nice.

66 posted on 02/23/2020 10:05:06 PM PST by Harmless Teddy Bear (A hero is a hero no matter what medal they give him. Likewise a schmuck is still a schmuck.)
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To: ClearCase_guy; All

If I had a President who would make McConnel have a vote on some of the infrastructure bills he is sitting on, I’d be fine.


67 posted on 02/23/2020 10:24:33 PM PST by gleeaikin
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To: MadMax, the Grinning Reaper; All

I wonder what the statistics are on deaths caused by Putin (the death toll for Ukraine is over 14,000) and Rocket Man in N. Korea. Has Assad reached 200,000 yet?


68 posted on 02/23/2020 10:29:49 PM PST by gleeaikin
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To: karpov

Better Dead Than Red. Better Dead Reds.


69 posted on 02/23/2020 10:53:35 PM PST by Swarthy Greek Immigrant (NO MERCY TO TERRORISTS you dumb bastards! - Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump - Apr 21, 2013)
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To: karpov

Some Cubans are very happy. They all have the last name Castro.


70 posted on 02/23/2020 10:54:13 PM PST by Rocky
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To: gleeaikin

Putin has killed tens of thousands in Syria, Chechnya (people forget how bloody that place was/is), Ukraine and maybe a few in Venezuela (He sent a detachment of “police” or something like that there in the last 6 months). Don’t forget his assassins of journalists, lawyers, protestors, etc in Russia and Europe, esp. England.

The boy has been busy.

Assad, way over 200,000.


71 posted on 02/23/2020 11:01:55 PM PST by MadMax, the Grinning Reaper
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To: karpov; All
"Bernie Sanders defends
Fidel Castro's socialist Cuba:
'Unfair to simply say
everything is bad'....


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72 posted on 02/23/2020 11:33:19 PM PST by musicman (The future is just a collection of successive nows.)
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To: cableguymn

We have a nice military base there.


73 posted on 02/24/2020 12:29:17 AM PST by VanDeKoik
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To: cableguymn

Good cigars. They’ve eradicated syphilis by pretending it no longer exists there. So if you catch a dose at a brothel there, no treatment.


74 posted on 02/24/2020 12:54:47 AM PST by Eleutheria5 ("SHUT UP!" he explained.)
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To: karpov

What these *democratic socialists* (ie: Communists) always fail to acknowledge is that “human-rights violations” are a part and parcel of any Communist regime.

It’s a matter of human nature. There will always be dissent. With dissent there comes oppression of the dissenters. When oppression doesn’t work then it becomes persecution of dissent. When persecution doesn’t work then it becomes prosecution and imprisonment, and on and on and on until it becomes genocide.

This is the fatal flaw of Communism. It can never be *done right* because it completely goes against human nature, and nothing can ever change that.


75 posted on 02/24/2020 1:04:59 AM PST by Mr_Moonlight (Ich bin ein Irredeemable Deplorable)
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To: karpov

Bernie’s right! Have you tried the Plantains?


76 posted on 02/24/2020 1:46:36 AM PST by D Rider
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To: karpov

I have a contact who travels to Cuba....Bernie’s right. It’s not bad...it’s terrible.


77 posted on 02/24/2020 3:39:54 AM PST by ealgeone
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To: karpov

78 posted on 02/24/2020 3:59:15 AM PST by Travis McGee (EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
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To: MadMax, the Grinning Reaper

“...Any doubt that Bernie Sanders was a sane person and not a communist psychopath has just gone down the crapper ...”

He’s a diehard commie. Wants to see it happen here, in his lifetime, with him in charge.

He’s got the “crazy eyes”, like that freak cult leader who offed himself waiting for the comet some years ago.


79 posted on 02/24/2020 4:45:53 AM PST by NFHale (The Second Amendment - By Any Means Necessary.)
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To: karpov

bernie wants the USA to be like cuba. The majority of people p*ss poor, with the ruling party elite living high off the hog, wanting for nothing.

bammy, bernie, and the “pope” all worship at the church of cuban communism.


80 posted on 02/24/2020 4:50:08 AM PST by I want the USA back (We have sunk to a depth where restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men:Orwell)
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