Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (VT) defended his past remarks about Fidel Castro's regime that was installed after the revolution because while Castro jailed and executed dissidents, at least he improved the country's literacy rates.
Sanders told Anderson Cooper during his "60 Minutes" interview that while he's "opposed" to Castro's authoritarianism, it "unfair to simply say everything is bad."
"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?" Sanders asked.
Cooper said there would be many dissidents who would argue it was bad since they were wrongfully put in prison.
"And we condemn that! Unlike Donald Trump, let's be clear, I do not think that Kim Jong-Un is a good friend. I don't trade love letters with a murdering dictator. Vladmir Putin, not a great friend of mine," Sanders said.
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
In the video Cooper talked over, Sanders gave his reasons why the Cuban people did not rise up against Castro's regime, pointing to the government programs he implemented, such as healthcare.
Here's the video of Bernie Sanders stupidly praising Fidel Castro (and sounding completely historically illiterate) without Anderson Cooper talking over it: pic.twitter.com/Ue9oWgLOgz
— Eddie Zipperer (@EddieZipperer) February 24, 2020
Sanders has proudly described himself as a democratic socialist and he is currently the Democratic frontrunner for the party's presidential nomination.