Charles Payne: Bernie Sanders is a byproduct of the Obama administration
Fox Business host Charles Payne told 'Fox & Friends' that frontrunner Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., is the 'logical outcome' of Barack Obama.
Democratic presidential front-runner Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., is the "logical outcome" of former president Barack Obama, Fox Business host Charles Payne said Wednesday.
Appearing on "Fox & Friends" with hosts Steve Doocy, Ainsley Earhardt, and Brian Kilmeade, Payne said that the pair were similar not just on Cuba, but on other policy platforms like free college tuition.
"Barack Obama planted that seed. Almost everything that Bernie talks about to the extremes were planted by Obama, including the trip to Havana," Payne remarked.
BERNIE SANDERS 'RATTLED' BY DEBATE CROWD'S PUSHBACK ON HIS PRAISE FOR CUBA, FRANK LUNTZ SAYS
During a contentious tenth presidential debate ahead of the South Carolina primary race on Saturday, candidates sought to tear Sanders down a percentage point by attacking some of his more radical stances.
In defense of some of his past comments praising the Cuban government’s strides on education and health care under the Castro regime, Sanders said he opposed authoritarian regimes across the globe but that sometimes they “do some things good.”
Sanders' claims that he condemned "authoritarians" and that his recent praise for Fidel Castro's literacy programs was similar to Obama's previous remarks drew a sharp rebuke from both former Vice President Joe Biden and former mayor of South Bend, Ind., Pete Buttigieg.
"I've gotta speak," Biden, clearly animated, shouted forcefully in response in one of the debate's most heated moments. "Barack Obama was abroad; he was in a town meeting. He did not in any way suggest there was anything positive about the Cuban government. He acknowledged that they did increase life expectancy, but he went on to condemn the dictatorship. ... He does not, did not, has never embraced an authoritarian regime, and does not now."
Then, turning to Sanders, Biden went on, "This man, in fact, did not condemn what they did."
"I am not looking forward to a scenario where it comes down to Donald Trump with his nostalgia for the social order of the 1950s, and Bernie Sanders with a nostalgia for the revolutionary politics of the 1960s. ... We're not gonna win these critical House and Senate races if people in these races have to explain why the nominee of the Democratic Party is telling people to look at the bright side of the Castro regime," Buttigieg added.
From left, Democratic presidential candidates, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and former Vice President Joe Biden, participate in a Democratic presidential primary debate at the Gaillard Center, Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2020, in Charleston, S.C., co-hosted by CBS News and the Congressional Black Caucus Institute. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
In March of 2016, the former president visited Cuba and called the country's basic education system "an extraordinary resource" at a town hall a few days following his trip. Obama also noted that the "life expectancy of Cubans is equivalent to the United States despite it being a very poor country because they have access to health care," though noting that the "economy [was] not working."
"Go back and look at the news in 2016," urged Payne. "It was the new falling of the Berlin Wall. It was the end of the final chapter of the Cold War. [About] 1,200 people went down in the delegation."
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"I mean, you know, there was a serious push to normalize Cuba," he continued.
"And, so why is anyone shocked that this is what we have seen out of that?" he asked. "This is -- almost all of Bernie's things, his ideas -- you know -- under Obama's presidency those seeds were planted."
"He is taking them to the extreme, but we knew they would grow and he is the one who has latched on to it," Payne concluded.
Fox News' Gregg Re, Andrew O'Reilly and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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