© 2024 All Rights reserved WUSF
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
What you need to know about the 2020 elections across the greater Tampa Bay region.

The Anti-Bernie Electability Argument Grows in Miami after Castro Comments

 Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks during a campaign event on Sunday, Feb. 23, 2020, in Austin, Texas.
Nick Wagner
/
Austin American-Statesman via AP
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks during a campaign event on Sunday, Feb. 23, 2020, in Austin, Texas.

Bernie Sanders’ remarks about Fidel Castro on “60 Minutes” Sunday night continued to set off alarms among Florida Democrats on Monday, as worries spread about the presidential front-runner’s views on authoritarian regimes and the effect on Hispanic and undecided voters in a swing state.

Lawmakers and prominent Democrats across Florida denounced Sanders’ comments, which included a remark that it was “simply unfair to say everything is bad” about Fidel Castro’s Cuban revolution. They said Sanders’ rhetoric will make it harder for him to win statewide in November — and hurt candidates in competitive congressional and state-level races.

Sanders lost the 2016 Democratic primary by 31 percentage points in Florida, and Florida Democrats are wary of a party nominee offering anything other than unequivocal condemnation of left-leaning authoritarian leaders like Castro and Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro.

Read more at the Miami Herald.

Copyright 2020 WLRN 91.3 FM. To see more, visit .

Alex Daugherty
You Count on Us, We Count on You: Donate to WUSF to support free, accessible journalism for yourself and the community.