Florida Democrats recoil at Karen Bass VP float
From WWW.POLITICO.COM
The California congresswoman’s past comments about Fidel Castro "are troubling," said one lawmaker in the nation’s largest swing state.
Rep. Karen Bass surfaced as a possible vice-presidential pick who could help balance Biden's ticket with her deep progressive roots and her activism against police brutality | Alex Wong/Getty Images
Florida Democrats are rising in opposition to the news Joe Biden is vetting a running mate who once lamented the death of “Comandante en jefe” Fidel Castro.
An early ally of Biden’s presidential campaign, California Rep. Karen Bass’ name surfaced this week as a possible vice-presidential pick who could help balance his ticket because of her deep progressive roots and her activism against police brutality, an emerging issue in the presidential race.
But Bass‘ comments about the longtime Cuban leader following his death in 2016 — when she respectfully called him “comandante en jefe” (in Spanish, commander in chief) — is politically poisonous in Florida and even more toxic in Miami, home to many exiles from socialist Latin American regimes that include Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua.
The Florida Democratic Party has spent two years fighting a renewed GOP effort to brand them as socialists, and the state and national parties are spending big this year in Miami to defend two congressional seats and win two crucial state Senate contests in districts with sizable Cuban-American populations. All four lawmakers condemned Bass’ Castro remarks.
“The comments are troubling. It shows a lack of understanding about what the Castro regime was about. So I have to learn more about her position and perspective on Fidel Castro,” said Miami state Rep. Javier Fernandez, whose bid for an open state Senate seat could bring Democrats closer than ever to flipping control of the chamber.
“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 to suppress human rights, keep people under a totalitarian thumb and stifle economic growth,” Fernandez told POLITICO.
Bass’ congressional office pointed out that her remarks were similar to those made by President Obama at a time when the U. S. sought better relations with Cuba.
The Biden campaign declined comment about either the controversy or the running-mate vetting process. It’s keenly aware of how explosive remarks about Castro are after his opponent, Bernie Sanders, was buried in an avalanche of criticism over comments that failed to condemn the Cuban dictator.
With such antipathy toward Castro and socialism, Florida became the first state in the primary in which Biden won a clear majority of Hispanic voters, a signature victory that put a sizable dent in a progressive talking point that the issue no longer mattered to Latino voters in the biggest swing state in the nation.
Polls show Biden with a 7-point lead in Florida right now, according to the RealClearPolitics polling average. But Democrats worry the presence of Bass on the ticket would needlessly help Republicans in a state where the GOP has historically eked out come-from-behind wins. Florida Democrats also favor a home-state congressional candidate as Biden’s running mate, with Val Demings also under consideration. Demings, a Florida congresswoman who is African-American, is a member of the Congressional Black Caucus while Bass chairs the group.
Two of their congressional colleagues from Miami, Reps. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell and Donna Shalala, are facing reelection challenges from Cuban-American Republicans who have made socialism a top issue. Both support Demings as a running mate for Biden but say that Bass‘ comments in their own right are problematic, and both had also condemned Sanders remarks about Castro in the primary.
"I disagree with the Congresswoman's comments on Cuba. I invite people to come to Miami where we can educate them on the tyrannical dictatorship that has decimated Cuba for 60 years,” Shalala said, adding “my focus is on helping her and Joe Biden win Florida, the White House, and save our country."
Mucarsel-Powell said she opposes “comments that show an ounce of symp... (Read more)
Submitted 1398 days ago
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