While 2020 hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., is in the hot seat for defending Fidel Castro's socialist authoritarian regime in Cuba, Fox News contributor Guy Benson said on Monday that Democrats recognize the "toxic" nature of the comments.

“It’s not just Republicans like Marco Rubio. I [have] been watching Twitter all morning and a lot of Democrats from Florida who recognize how toxic this is are very dramatically distancing themselves from Bernie Sanders on these comments,” Benson told “America’s Newsroom.”

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Sanders, the front-runner for the Democrats' presidential nomination, doubled down on his support for some of the Cuban dictator Fidel Castro's policies, saying in an interview that aired Sunday, "it's unfair to simply say everything is bad."

Speaking to CBS News' "60 Minutes," Sanders, a self-proclaimed democratic socialist, pointed to social welfare programs introduced under Castro's regime that he described as redeeming, despite the communist dictator's often repressive human-rights violations against Cubans.

"We're very opposed to the authoritarian nature of Cuba but you know, it's unfair to simply say everything is bad. You know?" Sanders told Anderson Cooper. "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?"

Fidel Castro relinquished power to his brother Raúl in 2011 after nearly half a century in charge of the island nation; Fidel died in 2016.

In a resurfaced speech given at the University of Vermont in 1986, Sanders praised the socialist policies implemented in Cuba by the Castro regime and criticized bipartisan efforts in the U.S. to tamp down on Castro's spread of communism.

Benson, the host of "The Guy Benson Show" on Fox News Radio, said that Sanders' comments are “striking’ because they come amid the current momentum his campaign for president is riding.

“This was yesterday. This was Bernie Sanders on track to become the front-runner, if not, the nominee of the Democratic Party making a decision to go to bat for Fidel Castro’s regime,” Benson said.

“You can't separate them. The authoritarianism was the mechanism by which the entire regime operated and still operates until this day.”

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Benson said that Sanders touting Castro’s literacy program “does not overshadow the program of death, killing, torture, and subjugation” that were the “calling card” of Cuba’s regime.

Fox News' Vandana Rambaran contributed to this report.