'He is not going to be the nominee': Dems slam Sanders over Maduro stance

[Jose Garcia]

Florida Democrats are denouncing Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders for refusing to call Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro a dictator — a politically explosive issue in the nation’s biggest swing state.

Sanders also would not say whether he considered Venezuela’s assembly leader, Juan Guaidó, as the nation’s interim president, which is the position of the United States and a majority of Latin American countries European countries.

Both of Sanders’ positions play into the hands of President Trump and the GOP, say Democrats. The president just held a rally in Miami on Monday to denounce Maduro and socialism, an appeal to the state’s growing block of Venezuelan voters who've flocked to the state as Maduro brutally cracked down on dissent while the economy cratered.

More: https://www.politico.com/amp/story/2019/02/21/bernie-sanders-venezuela-maduro-1179636?__twitter_impression=true

[CrossingTheRubicon]

1. Maduro is a dictator.

Any Democratic nominee should be clear on this point.

[Eliot Rosewater]

2. SMH

[Garrett78]

3. I've always said that Sanders is just misguided. But one has to wonder if he's more than that.

Anyway, he's done after New Hampshire. The talk of him being a serious contender because of donations or name recognition polls is just plain ignorant.

[Honeycombe8]

4. I don't know that it's bad to disagree with Trump.

Did he refuse to even say that Maduro is a dictator? Or did he refuse to declare Guaido the real President?

This is an odd turn of events. Democrats want Democratic candidates to back Trump's position in foreign policy.

[Trumpocalypse]

8. Sorry but that is just partisan thinking.

Just because Trump says the sky is blue doesn’t mean we have to say that it isn’t. We blast the right when they do this. Madura is a dictator. That is a fact. We shouldn’t deny a fact just because of Trump. Doing so makes us just as bad as Republicans.

[Power 2 the People]

27. +1

[LongtimeAZDem]

5. Sanders Has a Soft Spot for Latin American Strongmen

This isn’t the first time Sanders has chosen to tiptoe around Latin America’s despotic leftist regimes. In the ’80s, Sanders traveled to Nicaragua. Upon his return, he repeatedly defended the Sandinistas and their leader, Daniel Ortega. (Michael Moynihan offers an excellent overview of Sanders and Nicaragua here.) Sanders’ enthusiasm for both Ortega and the Castro regime in Cuba came back to haunt him during the 2016 presidential campaign. Three years ago, during a primary debate against Hillary Clinton hosted by Univision and the Washington Post in Miami, Sanders was shown a video shot in 1985 while he was mayor of Burlington, Vermont, in which he spoke about Nicaragua and enthusiastically described how Fidel Castro had “totally transformed” Cuban society, providing education and health care. After Univision anchor María Elena Salinas followed up, Sanders acknowledged Cuba as an “authoritarian, undemocratic country” but then proceeded to praise the Castro regime, again, for its “advances in health care”

Sanders Has a Soft Spot for Latin American Strongmen

[IluvPitties]

11. Bernie likes left-wing strongmen as much as Trump likes right-wing ones.

[rusty fender]

24. Bernie was right about the fact that Castro transformed the country

Of course Castro’s transformation of Cuban society has been a mixed bag. I’m no longer a fan of Bernie, but I think it is unfair to say that Bernie approves of the authoritarian/violent aspect of so-called ‘leftist’ regimes.

[vsrazdem]

6. Interesting, since San Juan Mayor is co-chair of his campaign.

[Jose Garcia]

15. San Juan is in Puerto Rico, not Venezuela

[vsrazdem]

16. What was the point of that! I am stating that San Juan, Puerto Rico, Mayor does not have a problem

with Bernie Sanders, and Florida has a large Puerto Rican population, so I thought the article seemed a little strange. I am fully aware of where san Juan Puerto Rico is, I have been there. No reason to be insulting.

[Gothmog]

7. It will be hard to be the nominee without doing well in Florida

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

9. Okay, that does it...Bernie's campaign is officially over!! That sure didn't last long!!

Bernie & Elizabeth 2020!!

[Devil Child]

12. +1!

Thanks for the chuckle!

I’m thankful he hasn’t jumped on the dictator label background. Embracing that definition brings us one step closer to war in Venezuela which I refuse to support.

Look forward to the threads condemning Sen, Sanders for hypocrisy if he ever refers to Maduro as a dictator.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

13. Yup, no more fuckin' unnecessary wars!! That's why Bernie is such a wise politician

and one of the most popular among the declared candidates. It's, in part, because Bernie can be trusted with our foreign policy and not involve us in endless wars. Bernie was one of the few who were smart enough not to fall for The Shrub's bullshit by voting for the IWR... no surprise he got that one right. We can't afford another horrific mistake like that again!!


Bernie & Elizabeth 2020!!

[namahage]

17. For someone who's anti-war,

he sure does love having their instruments built in his state:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/bernie-sanders-loves-this-dollar1-trillion-war-machine

It will be particularly interesting to see those who support this as a jobs measure for the people of Vermont reconcile this with their vitriol for Joe Biden supporting financial company legislation, which arguably provides jobs for the people of his home state of Delaware.

[CrossingTheRubicon]

29. Should we reserve the title "dictator" for people like Bashir al Assad?

Maduro is a dictator. His election was a sham. He's stolen the country blind. And he clings to power by force.

[Devil Child]

30. Call Assad whatever you want, it's a mostly free country last I checked

If you want to effect change in foreign nations feel free to do so. I don't want my government in the business of military intervention and regime change.

[IluvPitties]

10. Maduro has destroyed Venezuela.

This is not a left vs right thing. Evil dictators are evil dictators no matter their political stance. We have an evil, Nazi-wannabe in the White House right now and Venezuela has a walking turd called Nicolás Maduro who is starving his own people.

F**k them both, and whoever stands behind them.

[Karadeniz]

14. Didn't Trump declare at a meeting right after the election that he wanted Venezuela's oil?

There have been several oversight analyses (UN) that
showed much improvement in affordable housing, nutrition and other areas. Maduro asked the UN to monitor the election, but the US blocked it. Chavez bought machines with a paper trail so it might have been easy to refute the subsequent allegations of fraud. Venezuela's economy hasn't been helped by the US getting everyone to impose sanctions. The US has been waging a p.r. campaign against the govt.that it's deliberately responsible for abusing the people, and so Venezuela needs humanitarian aid. Elliott Abrams is made our envoy to Colombia, the same Abrams who used USAID boxes to Central America to transport arms there and train rebels to overthrow their govts: Iran Contra. If I were in Venezuela, I'd be a bit worried to have Abrams next door and the US offering humanitarian aid.The US media has almost without of exception been parroting the Trump line, not explaining how Venezuela got where it is or why we're not recognizing a legitimately elected government. If we wanted to help, we could...without using our standard playbook for violent regime change. But, as Trump signaled shortly after his election, he wants the oil he likewise wanted from Iraq. We replaced another legitimate president with Pinochet, hardly a humanitarian success story. I hope we don't help the Venezuelan people by condemning them to a Pinochet.

[Jose Garcia]

19. The US already buys most of Venezuela's oil

Much improvement in nutrition?

https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/venezuela-prevalence-malnutrition-among-children-grows-economic-crisis-deepens

[okaawhatever]

23. Oh FFS, I don't think anything you wrote is true. You might want to apply for a job doing PR for

the Maduro regime.


Stay on point:
Maduro did not hold legitimate elections.
He doesn't have a legitimate STJ.
He created his own bogus congress when the opposition won a supermajority.
He's been ruling by decree for years, illegally, I might add.
He barely won his first election, even with Chavez' endorsement.
Within months of taking office his popularity was rated between 20-30%.
He had to make up new rules to put an end to the recall campaign.
He's been looting the treasury and stockpiling gold in Turkey so the legitimate owners of the assets, the VZ people, can't get them.

[joshcryer]

25. The US refines the vast majority of Venezuelan oil.

Venezuela would do well to let the US oil giants in and let them develop it. Or at least, they would have done well to have done that 10 years ago. Now with the Saudi's manipulating oil prices to the ground, it's a lost cause.

A decade of potential Venezuelan growth lost to populist rhetoric and waste. Million dollar projects just blown to the wind.

[dogman]

18. He called for no coup and fair elections.

Why should Floridians pick their government? Look what they have done here.

[Jose Garcia]

21. So he is admitted the the last election wasn't fair?

If so, what legitimate claim to the Presidency does Muduro have?

[dogman]

22. What claims do Floridians have?

What claims do the T-Rump administration have? Yes, Bernie is calling for fair elections for the people of Venezuela.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

26. And we've admitted we want their oil.

Maybe we should stay the fuck out of their business.

[Politicub]

20. Is this a litmus test?

It isn’t for me. Arguing about it is playing into the president’s tiny hands.

For all intents and purposes, Maduro behaves as a dictator would. I don’t care if Bernie calls him that or not. What I don’t want is the U.S. to get entangled in Venezuela’s affairs beyond humanitarian aid delivered through the U.N.

[Devil Child]

28. +1! n/t

[lunamagica]

31. They are rignt. He is not going to be the nominee