As you might have expected, many in the liberal media spent Wednesday celebrating Tuesday's primary victory by Florida state Rep Angie Nixon, a member of the DSA, who won the Democratic nomination for Senate in Florida. But on CNN's News Central, an interview conducted by co-host Boris Sanchez with DSA Co-Chair Ashik Siddique took an unexpected turn as Siddique failed to answer several questions about his group's support for Castro's Cuba.
For Sanchez, who was 3 years old when he and his family emigrated from Cuba, it would eventually become personal, but not at the start, where after discussing some other DSA positions, he turned to Cuba.
SANCHEZ: You mentioned South Florida and the surprise that a Democratic socialist would do well in South Florida, in part because of a large population of people who have fled socialism, notably Cuban-Americans. The country's largest Cuban- American population is in Florida. Last week, the DSA commemorated a hundred years of Fidel Castro with a statement describing him as an organizer and a fighter. How do you think that plays with Florida voters?
Instead of answering the question, Siddique read through a litany of mainstream Democrat talking points, so Sanchez tried again, and again.
SANCHEZ: I hear your message discipline on affordability. I do wonder whether you understand why a statement like that lauding Fidel Castro, may not just turn people off from your platform, but offends people who suffered for decades under his dictatorship.
SIDDIQUE: Many decades of U.S. policy at this point have shown that if we want to expand democracy across the world, military regime change and economic blockades are not the way to do it.
SANCHEZ: What I'm trying to get at is how you think that lauding Fidel Castro is a good idea and is going to win you votes in Florida.
Siddique then went on to give his take of what led up to Castro seizing power in 1959, and accused the U.S. of now starving the people of Cuba, which led to Sanchez changing his approach.
SANCHEZ: Have you spent much time speaking to Cubans who have fled the island because of political persecution, who endured years under the Castro regime, Ashik?
After yet another non-answer to a question, Sanchez tried again.
SANCHEZ: Have you spoken to people who were politically persecuted by the Castro regime, who fled that island because of it?
Siddique finally said he had, before going after U.S. policy and was interrupted by Sanchez who then spoke from the heart.
SANCHEZ: I get your criticism of foreign policy. As I said, it's not an uncommon one. But lauding Fidel Castro is a different story.
You talk about what things were like before the revolution in Cuba. I'll give you a personal example. My grandfather was a revolutionary in Cuba during that time. He was affected by a previous dictator, Fulgencio Batista, having his friends disappeared in the street for speaking their minds. My grandfather found that revolution, hoping to bring democracy to Cuba. And then what happened? Fidel Castro locked my grandfather up, sentenced to 20 years for doing what you're doing now on live TV, for speaking his mind, for expressing himself freely, for trying to organize politically.
Wow! Sanchez followed that by once again going back to his original question:
SANCHEZ: So, I wonder, again, how you think that lands with people who suffered under that dictatorship, who now you are trying to court as voters when your organization comes out and lauds a hundred years of Castro. I don't think it would land well with them, Ashik.
SIDDIQUE: We're seeing many people in the United States who are seeing their -- who are struggling under massive inequality in the United States. That's greater than it's been in over a century. Inequality in the United States is higher than it's been in the Gilded Age. We're now returning to something that something that (INAUDIBLE) ...
SANCHEZ: So, putting out a statement about Fidel Castro courts those people?
SIDDIQUE: We want to expand democracy everywhere, in the United States, in Cuba and everywhere else. And that does not come at the barrel of a gun. It doesn't come under the threat of economic blockade. That only makes the -- that limits democracy everywhere.
SANCHEZ: And Fidel Castro was a beacon of democracy?
The conversation continued and you can see it in the video below.
What viewers saw from Sanchez was passion and frustration driven by personal experience. What they saw from Siddique, was a typical pre-programmed left wing political hack unwilling to stray from his talking points.
