Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Dems blast Sanders’ comments on Castro
State leaders fear senator couldn’t beat out Trump
Democratic leaders in Florida are condemning their party’s presidential front-runner, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, for his comments about former Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, in a potential preview of the uncomfortable relationship Sanders and state Democrats might have during a general election battle against President Trump.
The firestorm over Sanders’ comments on “60 Minutes” on Sunday night fueled fears from Florida Democrats that a Sanders candidacy would damage their chances of winning the state in November by alienating some Hispanics, a key constituency.
“The conventional wisdom and Florida’s voting history suggests Sanders’ embrace of socialism is not going to get him a majority of voters here in Florida,” said Aubrey Jewett, political science professor at the University of Central Florida, citing Andrew Gillum’s loss in the 2018 governor’s race to Trump ally Gov. Ron DeSantis. “And for Democratic candidates down-ticket, a lot of them could say, ‘We’ve got to separate ourselves from the guy at the top.’”
Sanders was asked on “60 Minutes” about his previous statements about the Castro regime in Cuba, including a visit to the communist-led island in the late 1980s, in which he praised some of the country’s social programs.
“We’re very opposed to the authoritarian nature of Cuba but you know, it’s unfair to simply say everything is bad,” Sanders said. “You know? When Fidel Castro came into office, you know what he did? He had a massive literacy program. Is that a bad thing?”
The comments drew an immediate backlash from Democrats, especially those from South Florida and its large Cuban population – the younger generation of which has been trending Democratic after years of being a solid GOP constituency.
“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,” said U.S. Rep. Debbie Murcasel-Powell, DMiami, in a tweet.
Her fellow South Florida Democrat, U.S. Rep. Donna Shalala, D-Miami, also tweeted, “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.”
U.S. Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Orlando, a national co-chair of one of Sanders’ chief rivals for the Democratic nomination, Michael Bloomberg, had the sharpest response, calling Sanders’ comments “ill-informed & insulting to thousands of Floridians.”
“Castro was a murderous dictator who oppressed his own people,” Murphy said in a tweet. “His ‘literacy program’ wasn’t altruistic; it was a cynical effort to spread his dangerous philosophy & consolidate power. Whether the subject is Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Israel or other foreign policy challenges, [Sanders] has consistently taken positions that are wrong on the merits and will alienate many Florida voters now and in the general election if he is nominated.”
The Florida Democratic Party also issued a statement that didn’t mention Sanders by name, but the intent was clear.
“Florida Democrats condemn dictators who toppled democracies across the globe and stand in solidarity with the thousands of people who have fled violent dictatorships in Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua,” state chair Terrie Rizzo said. “Candidates need to understand our immigrant communities’ shared stories.”
In response to the backlash, Sanders campaign spokesman Kolby Lee said the candidate “has clearly and consistently criticized Fidel Castro’s authoritarianism and condemned his human rights abuses, and he’s simply echoing President Obama’s acknowledgment that Cuba made progress, especially in education.”
Lee cited Obama’s remarks in Havana, Cuba, in 2016 during a reconciliation visit, in which the former president said, “The United States recognizes progress that Cuba has made as a nation, its enormous achievements in education and in health care.”
The underlying fear in many Democrats’ comments was that Sanders would drive away Hispanic voters.
Samuel Vilchez Santiago, a Democrat and a Venezuelan American activist from Orlando, has been trying to garner Venezuelan support for Democrats amid a push by the GOP to win over some of that community through Trump’s hard line on Venezuela’s leftist leader Nicolas Maduro.
Sanders’ comments, he said, “were an unnecessary mistake, but they were a continuation of comments he made about dictatorships in Latin America, including Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela. … This is going to be a huge issue if Bernie Sanders wins the nomination. Many people in Florida ran away from those brutal dictatorships.”
Republicans, meanwhile, quickly jumped in to take advantage of the Democratic in-fighting. “Good luck Democrats who may try and distance themselves from Sanders’ praise of communist dictators,” said Emma Vaughn, Florida spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee.
But Jewett cautioned that Trump’s victory in 2016 – when he faced many of the same distancing from Republican lawmakers and candidates that Sanders could face from his own party – shows it is premature to write off Sanders’ chances in the Sunshine State.
Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, for example, said in Orlando in 2016, “The choice the state of Florida has is simple: Do you want Trump to be the nominee, or not? If it’s Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton wallops us. Hillary Clinton wallops Donald Trump.”
Trump, of course, won both Florida and the presidency.
“Things do change,” Jewett said. “And in the era of Donald Trump, anything is possible.”