Bernie Sanders’ decision this week to run for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination promptly drew a response from a Twitter user who dug up old videos of the Vermont senator’s praise for life in communist dictatorships, including the Soviet Union.
“You know, it’s funny, sometimes American journalists talk about how bad a country is because people are lining up for food,” Sanders once said.
Bernie2020 – Make America Venezuela.
Today we promise to do everything we can to protect the United States from the scourge of Socialism that has destroyed millions of lives throughout the years.
Democrats, reject the demise of your party and country, say no to @BernieSanders. pic.twitter.com/t7GkcPQWwQ
— Reagan Battalion (@ReaganBattalion) February 19, 2019
“That’s a good thing. In other countries, people don’t line up for food. The rich get the food and the poor starve to death,” said the senator who has two homes in Vermont and a townhouse in Washington, and made more than $1 million in 2016 and in 2017.
His net worth has been estimated to be about $2 million, although it may be more.
His advocacy for food lines:
A blogger at the Twitter-monitoring newssite Twitchy said the videos posted by Twitter user Reagan Battalion “are just devastating.”
For example, after a 1988 trip to the Soviet Union, Sanders praised Moscow’s public transit and the communist youth indoctrination programs he saw.
Video 2. After his 1988 trip to the Soviet Union, @BernieSanders praises their (communist) youth programs and his wife Jane praises their (communist) system of not separating personal life and work. pic.twitter.com/Le8c87gG7f
— Reagan Battalion (@ReaganBattalion) February 20, 2019
And, the Twitchy blogger said, he blasted a reporter for describing communist dictator Daniel Ortega as a communist and a Marxist:
🚨 This video is absolutely frightening: 1985: @BernieSanders bashes a reporter for referring to the brutal communist dictator of Nicaragua Daniel Ortega as a Communist and Marxist, and not as the Democratically elected President of Nicaragua, demands that he praise the regime. pic.twitter.com/Dtpr6Jmh3D
— Reagan Battalion (@ReaganBattalion) February 20, 2019
The Reagan Battalion on Twitter
“🚨 This video is absolutely frightening: 1985: @BernieSanders bashes a reporter for referring to the brutal communist dictator of Nicaragua Daniel Ortega as a Communist and Marxist, and not as the Democratically elected President of Nicaragua, demands that he praise the regime. https://t.co/Dtpr6Jmh3D”
twitter.com
A commentary at Fox News said Sanders’ entry into the Democratic race “is likely to further fracture the Democratic primary electorate, opening up a path for a more moderate candidate to win the nomination.”
In 2016, he won 23 Democratic primaries and caucuses before losing to Hillary Clinton.
He’s 77 years old.