Her Cuba comments are just ammo for Republicans to beat up on here and Biden should he be foolish enough to pick her…
And it would cost Biden support in Florida…
“She will be the highest-ranking Castro sympathizer in the history of the United States government,” Sen. Marco Rubio said on a conference call organized by the Trump campaign to trash Bass….
…
Fidel Castro is once again casting a long shadow over U.S presidential politics.
The former Cuban president is a topic of derision for both political parties in Florida and Republicans here used him on Saturday to bash Karen Bass, a California Democrat who is rising on Joe Biden’s vice-presidential shortlist.
“She will be the highest-ranking Castro sympathizer in the history of the United States government,” Sen. Marco Rubio said on a conference call organized by the Trump campaign to trash Bass.
Bass made numerous trips to Cuba dating back to the 1970s, and professed her sympathies when Castro died in 2016, a position that is politically poisonous in Miami, a key block of voters in a state central to President Donald Trump’s re-election bid. Much of the early focus when rumors emerged that Bass was rising among VP candidates was her description of Castro as “Comandante en Jefe” in a statement when he died, a phrase that translates to “commander-in-chief.”
“As Cuba begins nine days of mourning, I wish to express my condolences to the Cuban people and the family of Fidel Castro,” her office issued in a statement marking the Cuban leader’s death. “The passing of the Comandante en Jefe is a great loss to the people of Cuba.”
Her comments came at a time when then-President Barack Obama was trying to normalize relations with the island nation, including opening an embassy in Havana. Bass was part of the delegation that traveled to Cuba for the 2015 embassy opening.
Florida, and Miami specifically, represents a wide cross-section of Latinos, many of whom have fled or have family members who fled leftist Latin American regimes, including Castro’s Cuba….
…
In Florida, the concern about Bass is bipartisan, as Democrats are worried putting her on the ticket would needlessly give Trump new ammunition in the nation’s largest swing-state. Many Florida Democrats also support another Biden short-lister: Val Demings, a Black former Orlando police chief who has been in Congress since 2016.
image…Samuel Corum/Getty