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Sanders Bashed NYT in 1986 for Not Telling the 'Truth' About Communism

Senator said he was 'very excited' watching Castro's revolution 'rising up against rather ugly rich people'

Sen. Bernie Sanders / Getty Images
February 21, 2019

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) in 1986 spoke of being "very excited" about watching the late Cuban dictator Fidel Castro's revolution "rising up against rather ugly rich people" and lambasted the New York Times for not telling the "real truth" about communism in Nicaragua, according to a newly surfaced video.

The Reagan Battalion posted the video on Twitter on Thursday, following an earlier video from 1985 in which Sanders, then the mayor of Burlington, Vermont, praises Castro and slams then-President Ronald Reagan. That video, which initially surfaced during the 2016 presidential cycle, was posted in full by Mediate.

Within the second video, which was filmed at the University of Vermont in 1986, Sanders speaks of his excitement of watching Castro "rising up against the ugly rich people."

"But I remember, for some reason or another, being very excited when Fidel Castro made the revolution in Cuba—I was a kid and I remember reading that—and it just seemed right and appropriate that poor people were rising up against rather ugly rich people," Sanders says in the video.

Sanders later adds that the New York Times was obfuscating the "real truth" about communism.

"And you read the New York Times and you understand why they are not talking about what's going on in Nicaragua—that's the important story," Sanders says. "The important story is not Nicaragua, it's not the United States government attitude toward Nicaragua, which is no different than it's been in 50 years."

"The United States has the right to destroy any government in Latin America that they want and that's been consistent for 50 or 100 years," he says. "There's nothing new about that. What is new, is why when you read the New York Times, the real truth is not being told, and how that's obfuscated."

Sanders on Tuesday announced that he is running for president in 2020.