How will Sanders' Cuba comments impact the Florida vote?
Sanders may have alienated a Florida voting bloc with his Cuba comments
Sen. Bernie Sanders may have alienated a chunk of Florida voters after he said Sunday that "it's unfair to simply say everything is bad" when asked about Cuban dictator Fidel Castro's policies.
Two-thirds of the U.S. Cuban population lives in Florida, according to the Pew Research Center. An estimated 2.3 million Hispanics of Cuban origin live in the U.S. Many of them fled the late Castro's regime.
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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," 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?"
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks during a campaign event in San Antonio, Texas, Saturday, Feb. 22, 2020. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
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Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle spoke out against Sanders' comments.
"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., wrote on Twitter on Sunday.
"Likely Dem nominee praised the supposed 'achievements' [of the] Castro regime," Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., wrote on Twitter on Sunday. "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."
Rubio is Cuban American.
Florida's Democratic voters will head to the polls for the state's primary on March 17.
Fox News' Vandana Rambaran and Gregg Re contributed to this report.
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