Bernie Sanders' remarks about Fidel Castro on "60 Minutes" Sunday night continued to set off alarms among Florida Democrats on Monday, as worries spread about the presidential front-runner's views on authoritarian regimes and the effect on Hispanic and undecided voters in a swing state.
Lawmakers and prominent Democrats across Florida denounced Sanders' comments, which included a remark that it was "simply unfair to say everything is bad" about Fidel Castro's Cuban revolution. They said Sanders' rhetoric will make it harder for him to win statewide in November _ and hurt candidates in competitive congressional and state-level races.
Sanders lost the 2016 Democratic primary by 31 percentage points in Florida, and Florida Democrats are wary of a party nominee offering anything other than unequivocal condemnation of left-leaning authoritarian leaders like Castro and Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro.
