Sen. Bernie Sanders is running for the 2020 Democratic nomination. This was expected. He’s a darling of the far left and as such, cannot be bothered with slamming Venezuela’s socialist dictator Nicolas Maduro, the successor to the late Hugo Chavez. The nation embraced so-called 21stcentury socialism back in the early 2000s and it’s destroyed the country. People are eating out of garbage cans, police arrest people waiting outside of supermarkets, pets are being eaten, and zoo animals are being slaughtered for meat. Basic supplies are in short supply and Venezuelans from all education and economic backgrounds have resorted to prostitution for basic groceries.
Attention: A @Univision team, headed by @jorgeramosnews, is being arbitrarily detained at the Miraflores Palace in Caracas. They were interviewing @NicolasMaduro but he didn't like the questions. Their technical equipment was also confiscated. https://t.co/c45tB0E4er
— Univision News (@UnivisionNews) February 26, 2019
This is a failure of leftism, but Democrats are content with just ignoring it. During CNN’s town hall with Mr. Sanders this week, the self-described democratic socialist refused to condemn Maduro as a dictator. All of this while he reportedly detained Univision’s Jorge Ramos because he didn’t like his questions. Even Democrats disagreed with Sanders on this (via Free Beacon):
Sanders, who announced last week he's running for president, participated in a CNN town hall in Washington, D.C., with host Wolf Blitzer. The CNN host asked him why he stopped short of calling Maduro a dictator in an interview with Univision's Jorge Ramos last week.
"Well, I think it's fair to say that the last election was undemocratic, but there are still democratic operations taking place in that country. The point is what I'm calling for right now is internationally supervised, free elections," Sanders said.
[…]
"At the end of the day, it's going to be the people of Venezuela who determine the future of their country, not the United States," Sanders said.
Rep. Donna Shalala (D., Fla.), Sen. Ben Cardin (D., Md.), and other Democrats have come out against Sanders for refraining from calling for Maduro to step down or saying whether he thinks Maduro is a dictator.
Sanders "has demonstrated again that he does not understand this situation," Shalala told Politico, adding, "I absolutely disagree with his imprecision in not saying Maduro must go."
Remember, foreign policy has always been Mr. Sander’s weak spot. And he’s obviously hasn’t improved in that department.