Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said Sunday he doesn’t want President Obama to send a U.S. representative to the funeral of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, who died last week at the age of 90.
“I very much hope that we don’t see any U.S. government officials going to Fidel Castro’s funeral,” Cruz told ABC’s “This Week.” “I hope we don’t see Barack Obama and Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton and Democrats lining up to lionize a murderous tyrant and thug.”
“If you wouldn’t go to Pol Pot’s funeral or [Joseph] Stalin’s funeral or [Chinese communist dictator] Mao’s funeral because they were murderous communist dictators, then you shouldn’t be doing what Barack Obama and Justin Trudeau are doing, which is celebrating Fidel Castro: a murderous, communist dictator,” the Republican senator added.
Cruz, who is of Cuban descent, slammed Obama for his statement following the death of Castro, saying that the president mostly ignored the human rights violations and atrocities committed by the communist leader against his own people. He also criticized Trudeau, Canada’s prime minister, for his effusive praise of Castro. Trudeau’s comments sparked backlash, and were ridiculed in the form of the trending hashtag #TrudeauEulogies.
Cruz called on people to remember the victims of Castro’s regime instead of remembering him.
Cruz’s father, Rafael, fled Cuba after he was jailed by the regime of Fulgencio Batista, whose regime was overthrown in the Castro-led Cuban Revolution in 1959.
