Meghan McCain tries to shut down Behar as she defends Cuba’s literacy program: 'Lets not'
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"The View" co-hosts unanimously panned Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., on Tuesday but co-host Joy Behar ruffled some feathers in how she defended the 2020 candidate and his comments about Cuba's dictatorship.
At one point, Behar seemed to try and tout Cuba's literacy program, which Sanders similarly used as a way to defend former dictator Fidel Castro's regime.
"I believe the literacy rate did jump quite a bit," Behar said. McCain responded: "Ok, let's not. Let's not."
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Shark Tank investor Kevin O'Leary had described the literacy initiative as a "re-education" program. After Behar's comment, he said that he wasn't sure Cubans were getting a "good dose of world history" in the program.
BERNIE SANDERS' DEFENSE OF CASTRO'S CUBA EVOKES SOCIALISM'S BRUTAL HISTORY
"Do they get that here?" she asked, apparently knocking the U.S.'s education system.
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Behar and co-host Whoopi Goldberg differed over just how bad the senator's comments were about Cuba.
"There's no way around that. This is as bad as you-know-who saying there were good people on both sides – it's the same thing," Goldberg said, referring to President Trump's comments during the racially charged protests in Charlottesville, Va.
Co-host Meghan McCain agreed, but not everyone was on board. "I don't agree," Behar responded.
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Goldberg suggested that Sanders' comments about dictator Fidel Castro were like downplaying how bad Adolf Hitler was.
Behar eventually seemed to downplay the threat posed by the Castro regime, saying: "Fidel is dead, his brother will be dead soon. The whole thing is going to change very soon."
Their conversation came after Sanders defended Cuba's leadership. "When Fidel Castro came into office, you know what he did? He had a massive literacy program. Is that a bad thing? Even though Fidel Castro did it?" he asked, noting that he was opposed to the regime's "authoritarian nature."
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Co-host Sunny Hostin predicted that Sanders' comments would hurt his popularity among Latinos.
"He's saying these things and he's this democratic socialist. That is not going to do well in Florida – a swing state – for that Latino contingent. I mean, they are not going to forgive him for this position," she said.
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"It's a dictatorship!" Goldberg added. "There is nothing groovy about a dictatorship."
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Behar also criticized Sanders' comments, arguing that he should have pointed out the country's many flaws.
"What he should be saying is yes, they learned to read but it's an oppressive dictatorship that has zero percent growth, that the people have no mobility, upward mobility there," she said. She added that the infrastructure in the country is "horrible" and that the "quality of life there is horrible."