Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) blasted Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA) after numerous comments and actions from the past surfaced in recent days amid talk she is being considered as Joe Biden’s running mate. The controversy centers on her praise of tyrannical communist dictator Fidel Castro.
Rubio said during a conference call that Bass would be “the highest-ranking Castro sympathizer in the history of the United States government” if Biden picks her.
“This is something that she will now want to deflect from, but I don’t believe in the last six decades that there has ever been anyone considered for the vice presidency … with this level of sympathy towards a Marxist regime,” Rubio said, and later added that Bass’s attempt to downplay her sympathies for communist Cuba was “insulting.”
In 2016, Bass praised Castro in a statement after he died, saying, “As Cuba begins nine days of mourning, I wish to express my condolences to the Cuban people and the family of Fidel Castro. The passing of the Comandante en Jefe is a great loss to the people of Cuba.”
On Sunday, when pressed by MSNBC’s Chuck Todd, who noted that many would be happy that Castro was dead, Bass responded, “Yeah, maybe.”
“This is not about one comment. She is not being sincere when she says it’s about one comment,” Rubio told Fox News during an interview. “Congresswoman Bass has a long, appears to be three-to-four-decade history of being an admirer of the Castro regime.”
“It started as a student, it continued during her time in government, and even up until her time here in Congress,” Rubio continued. “She frequently visited the island both as a part Venceremos Brigades that were there to participate in the revolution and be helpful to it and as recently as a few years ago. This is about more than just one comment.”
Evidence of Congresswoman Bass’s sympathy for Cuba’s Castro regime is evidenced by far more than just one comment in 2016 pic.twitter.com/sBXWDrU3iI
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) August 4, 2020
Bass has now walked back her comments, saying, “It’s certainly something that I would not say again.”
However, this is a drastic change from what Bass’s office said about the comments in June, when Politico reported that her office was standing by the comments.
Florida Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez, who is Cuban American, warned during the call with the Trump campaign that Biden is a type of Trojan horse that the far-Left in the Democratic Party will use to ram through their agenda if he gets elected.
“This is how the socialist and communist revolutions begin to take hold of nations that were once prosperous and free. Nations like Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua,” Nuñez said. “Taking advice from people like Bernie Sanders and AOC are really just the beginning.”
Miami state Rep. Javier Fernandez (D) blasted Bass over the comments, saying, “Praise like the one that was given by Bass at the time of Castro’s death is inconsistent with my family’s experience with what the regime did — and continues to do — to people on the island, which is suppress human rights, keep people under a totalitarian thumb and stifle economic growth.”
“The comments are troubling,” Fernandez added. “It shows a lack of understanding about what the Castro regime was about.”