Bernie Sanders Receives Glowing Praise on Front Page of Cuban State-Run Newspaper
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ controversial comments about late dictator Fidel Castro received high praise from Cuba’s newspapers.
Communist Party newspaper Granma proudly reported on Sanders’ praise of “some of the social programs implemented by the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution Fidel Castro,” according to the Miami Herald.
The Cuban newspaper was responding to comments the 2020 Democratic presidential candidate made in a recent interview on “60 Minutes,” during which he lauded Castro’s 1960s “literacy brigade” and said it’s “unfair to simply say everything is bad” about Castro’s regime.
“We’re very opposed to the authoritarian nature of Cuba but, you know, it’s unfair to simply say everything is bad,” Sanders told Anderson Cooper.
“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?”
Despite the criticism he received from both Democrats and Republicans, Granma applauded Sanders’ comments.
“U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, today one of the strongest candidates for the nomination of the Democratic Party to the November presidential elections, recognized Cuba’s role in sending doctors worldwide,” Granma said.
Although the Vermont senator has previously recognized the role Cuba played in sending doctors all over the world, he made those comments during a 2016 debate, not in the interview with Cooper.
Granma, which has published several anti-Trump articles, also highlighted Sanders’ support for the re-establishment of diplomatic relations with Cuba.
Granma was not the only state media outlet to report on Sanders’ dialogue, but all of them left out his reference to the “authoritarian nature of Cuba.”
The Herald reported that those outlets published “glowing, front-page reviews” of what Sanders said.
The publication also wrote that Sanders’ “comments sparked the anger of the most extremist sector of Cuban-Americans in South Florida, who oppose any rapprochement with the Caribbean island.”
Democratic Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell tweeted her criticism of Sanders, saying that she found his comments “absolutely unacceptable.”
“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 wrote.
Other Democrats vying for the party’s presidential nomination came out strongly against Sanders.
“Fidel Castro left a dark legacy of forced labor camps, religious repression, widespread poverty, firing squads, and the murder of thousands of his own people,” former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg tweeted. “But sure, Bernie, let’s talk about his literacy program.”
Former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg said in a CNN town hall on Monday that he doesn’t “want to be explaining why our nominee is encouraging people to look on the bright side of the Castro regime when we are going into the elections of our lives.”
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