Buttigieg Blasts Sanders Over Cuba at CNN Town Hall: ‘Why Are We Spotlighting the Literacy Programs of a Brutal Dictator?’

2020 Democratic hopeful and former South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg blasted rival Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT)  over defending his own remarks on Fidel Castro’s reign in Cuba – in the previous CNN Town Hall segment – which Sanders pointed to how the dictator instituted a “literacy program.”

Buttigieg fired back, ripping the senator, stating that the Democratic party must be “unambiguous in our condemnation about the way [Castro] treated his own people.”

CNN host Don Lemon then floated Sanders’ defense before asking, “Do you think that’s a fair assessment?”

Buttigieg responded, “So, this is part of what I’m getting at. When I say that in our one shot to defeat Donald Trump, we should think carefully about the consequences of nominating Senator Sanders. I don’t want as a Democrat to be explaining why our nominee is encouraging people to look on the bright side of the Castro regime when we are going into the election of our lives. We need to stand against dictatorship everywhere in the world.”

“So you don’t think it’s a good excuse? He says he thinks he’s a dictator…But literacy is a good thing,” Lemon floated.

“Why are we spotlighting the literacy programs of a brutal dictator, instead of being unambiguous in our condemnation about the way he treated his own people?” Buttigieg concluded.

Watch above, via CNN.