House Democrats shut down a resolution condemning Cuban dictator Fidel Castro’s communist regime and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’s comments defending the late leader’s “literacy program.”
The House blocked the resolution introduced by Florida Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart along party lines, with 189 Republican and independent members of the chamber voting in favor and 224 Democrats voting against. However, 16 members, including Democratic Reps. Donna Shalala and Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, were not present during the vote.
In an email from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s office, he blasted his absent colleagues, writing, “Rep. Shalala and Rep. Mucarsel-Powell’s constituents deserve to know why the representatives they sent to Washington did not even bother to vote on an important resolution to condemn Senator Sanders’ comments & the Castro regime.”
The California Republican continued in a statement to the Washington Examiner, “America is the beacon of freedom for the entire world, a shining light on the hill. That’s why it’s so embarrassing that Democrats now embrace socialism and its disastrous consequences. Democrats should have taken the opportunity today to stand for freedom, but instead, they shamefully decided to stand by Bernie’s reckless praise of Fidel Castro’s Cuba.”
FLOOR ALERT: @HouseDemocrats just BLOCKED @MarioDB‘s resolution condemning Senator Sanders’ shameful praise of the communist Castro dictatorship – the murderous, terrorist regime in #Cuba. pic.twitter.com/A5x2TxArFW
— House Rules Republicans (@RulesReps) February 27, 2020
The resolution consists of five parts, two areas specifically condemning Sanders’s defense of Castro and three dealing with human rights abuses in Cuba.
“Resolved, That the House of Representatives— (1) condemns the comments of Senator and Democratic Socialist Presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders (I–VT), disregarding the history of systemic human rights abuses, forced indoctrination, and authoritarian actions of the literacy and education policies of the Communist Castro dictatorship in Cuba,” the resolution read.
“(2) condemns the use of firing squads, imprisonment, torture, and acts of repudiation to suppress dissent in totalitarian Cuba, as well as the forced Communist indoctrination policies carried out by the Castro dictatorship in Cuba,” it resolution continued.
