Bernie Sanders Declines to Disavow Past Praise of Cuban Communism at Debate

At Wednesday's Univision debate in Miami, moderators played a clip of Bernie Sanders (then the mayor of Burlington, Vermont) praising Fidel Castro’s communist Cuban government in 1985. “In 1961 they invaded Cuba,” Sanders says in the clip. “Everyone was totally convinced Castro was the worst guy in the world. They forgot that he educated their kids, gave them health care and totally transformed their society.”

The 1985 interview in question involved a discussion of U.S. support for anti-Sandinista guerillas in Nicaragua, and Wednesday in Miami Sanders argued his comments about Castro should be understood as criticism of reckless U.S.–backed regime change. What the ’85 interview “was about was saying that the United States was wrong to try to invade Cuba, that the United States was wrong trying to support people to overthrow the Nicaraguan government, that the United States was wrong trying to overthrow, in 1954, the democratically elected government of Guatemala,” the Vermont senator said. But he also passed up the chance to directly criticize Castro, reiterating his praise for Cuban health care and education and only noting after a follow-up question that the country is “authoritarian” and “undemocratic.”