Socialist Bernie Sanders may have not scored points with voters in Miami after he praised Fidel Castro but he has earned high praise in Havana.
Sanders has been flayed alive by his fellow Democrat candidates over his defense of the murderous dictator and his literacy programs but Cuba’s official communist newspaper has recognized the efforts of their comrade.
On Tuesday, Bernie got the front-page treatment from Granma which glowingly tabbed him as “one of the strongest candidates for the nomination of the Democratic Party” while saluting his kudos for Castro.
Bernie’s controversial comments were made during an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper on CBS’s flagship “60 Minutes” on Sunday night.
Unbelievable! The official newspaper of the Communist Party of Cuba today published this article that’s a hybrid endorsement of Bernie Sanders’ campaign and a thank you note for repeating their propaganda about Fidel Castro’s “literacy programs.” Absolutely insane. pic.twitter.com/0BBn47c5MI
— Giancarlo Sopo (@GiancarloSopo) February 25, 2020
Via The Miami Herald, “Havana gives front-page coverage to Bernie Sanders for praising Fidel Castro”:
Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders views on the Cuban revolution have earned him a storm of criticism in the U.S. But there’s one place where his comments have received glowing, front-page reviews: Cuba.
Granma, the Communist Party newspaper, prominently displayed a report about Sanders and his praise of “some of the social programs implemented by the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution Fidel Castro.”
“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.
Adding its own analysis of the Democratic race, the newspaper said Sanders seemed “unstoppable” in his move towards the nomination.
During his nationally-televised chat with Cooper, Bernie gushed about Castro’s program to increase literacy while ignoring the fact that its primary purpose was to promote the regime’s communist propaganda.
Nor that noncompliance would likely have landed one in prison where they would be tortured until they submitted or lashed to a stake and shot by a firing squad.
Bernie Sanders defends his 1980s comments about Fidel Castro in an interview on 60 Minutes. https://t.co/ySqvQKoiBU pic.twitter.com/lTwuXWp9sA
— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) February 24, 2020
Then Bernie doubled down by defending Castro again during Monday’s CNN town hall:
WOW! Bernie Sanders just doubled down on his defense of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro's literacy program at tonight's #CNNTownHall.
While also praising Communist China for having taken more people out of extreme poverty than any country in history. pic.twitter.com/XGv3KHj6z3
— Francis Brennan (Text TRUMP to 88022) (@FrancisBrennan) February 25, 2020
According to a translation of the article:
US Senator Bernie Sanders, today one of the strongest candidates for the nomination of the Democratic Party for the November presidential elections, recognized the role of Cuba in sending doctors worldwide.
“It would be a mistake not to declare in Cuba that they have made some good advances in health care,” the 78-year-old politician admitted in an interview granted to the 60 Minutes program of the CBS network and broadcast this Sunday.
They are sending doctors all over the world. They have made some progress in education, ”said the Vermont senator who aspires to face Republican Donald Trump in the November 3 presidential elections.
It turns out that the presenter Anderson Cooper asked the current candidate for the nomination of the blue force to explain his comments of 1985, when he praised some of the social programs implemented by the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution Fidel Castro.
According to a video clip from more than 30 years ago, the senator said at the time that Fidel Castro “educated the children, gave them medical attention, totally transformed society.”
Although he made it clear that his “socialism” is not that of Venezuela or Cuba and stressed that the type of society in which he believes is in which he exists in countries such as Denmark, Finland and Sweden, the legislator said that it is “unfair to say simply that everything is wrong »on the island.
When Fidel Castro came to office, do you know what he did? I had a massive literacy program, ”Sanders emphasized, referring to the cultural revolution that allowed in just one year (in 1961) to eradicate illiteracy and facilitate universal access to different levels of education for free in the Caribbean country.
Granma’s salute to Bernie is a ringing endorsement although not one that he is going to easily live down as the brass knuckles have now come out in the battle for the nomination.