Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg joined his primary rivals Mike Bloomberg and Joe Biden in condemning fellow candidate Bernie Sanders for his praise of policies instituted by Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.
“In our one shot to defeat Donald Trump, we should think carefully about the consequences of nominating Sen. Sanders,” Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, said during a CNN town hall Monday night.
“I don’t want, as a Democrat, I don’t want to be explaining why our nominee is encouraging people to look on the bright side of the Castro regime when we’re going into the election fo our lives. We need to stand unequivocally against dictatorships everywhere in the world,” he added.
“Why are we spotlighting the literacy programs of a brutal dictator, instead of being unambiguous in our condemnation about the way he has treated his own people?” Buttigieg went on to say when pushed further by moderator Don Lemon.
Buttigieg’s town hall comments came after a tweet he sent out Monday afternoon as the Vermont senator’s comments began to make the rounds on social media.
“After four years of looking on in horror as Trump cozied up to dictators, we need a president who will be extremely clear in standing against regimes that violate human rights abroad. We can’t risk nominating someone who doesn’t recognize this,” the 38-year-old presidential contender tweeted.
Bloomberg and Biden also pounced on Sanders Monday, who has emerged as the front-runner for the Democratic nomination for president after winning the Nevada Caucus on Saturday.
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,” Bloomberg said in a tweet Monday.
He then cracked, “But sure, Bernie, let’s talk about his literacy program.”
Biden campaign senior adviser Cristóbal Alex released a statement saying, “Make no mistake: Bernie Sanders’ comments on Fidel Castro are a part of a larger pattern throughout his life to embrace autocratic leaders and governments across the globe.
Sanders has held these views on Castro for decades, as he made clear during the “60 Minutes” interview with Anderson Cooper.
When Cooper pressed the Vermont senator on comments he made in 1985 that the Cuban people didn’t “rise up in rebellion” because Castro “educated their kids, gave their kids health care, totally transformed society,” Sanders dug in.
“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?”
Cooper responded that “there’s a lot of political dissidents in Cuba” to this day.
“That’s right,” Sanders said. “And we condemn that.”