Chuck Todd Confronts DNC Chair Tom Perez Over Bernie Sanders’ Cuba Comments: Some Dems REALLY Unhappy

MSNBC’s Chuck Todd confronted Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez on Tuesday over 2020 Democratic presidential election frontrunner Bernie Sanders’ comments about Cuba and Fidel Castro.

“Democrats are grappling with the very real possibility that Senator Bernie Sanders will be their party’s eventual nominee,” opened Todd, before welcoming Perez, who he said has “the unlucky duty of having to figure out how to keep this party united.”

“Let me start with the Castro comments,” Todd continued, reading out a comment from Sen. Bob Menendenz (D-NJ) which criticized Sanders’ remarks.

“Bob Menendez was even angrier about the comments themselves about Fidel Castro and the sort of glossing over of the totalitarian nature of that regime. What say you, Mr. Chairman?” Todd asked.

Perez replied, “Well, listen Chuck, I will let Senator Sanders and any candidate who speaks up on an issue speak for themselves on those particular issues, but what I’ll say about this is the Democratic Party has been very clear in its opposition to authoritarian leaders.”

“This is very personal to me, Chuck. My family came to this country from the Dominican Republic, they had to flee a brutal dictator. They got kicked out, quite frankly. And I can’t look at, nor can Dominicans look at the Trujillo regime and see anything but an authoritarian leader,” Perez continued. “An authoritarian era where human rights were not on the table, and Cubans and Venezuelans and people who fled Marcos from the Philippines and elsewhere see it the same way.”

“I think what’s really important from this is to make sure all the candidates travel, whether it’s Florida, to talk to Venezuelan-Americans or Dominicans or Cubans and listen to those stories, because those stories are very similar to my own story,” the DNC chairman declared, adding, “The Democratic Party has been very clear in standing up to authoritarian regimes and this president hasn’t.”

“Why he continues to send love letters to North Korea is beyond me. Why he continues to be Putin’s poodle is beyond me,” Perez concluded. “We’re less safe because of that.”

Watch above via MSNBC.