In his CNN town hall Monday night, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT.) explained why he hesitates to call Venezuela\u2019s embattled president Nicol\u00e1s Maduro a dictator.<\/p>\n
Ariana News Agency-\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Maduro won re-election in May of last year in what many saw as an illegitimate election wrought with fraud. That alone isn\u2019t enough for Sanders to call him a dictator, and after a short stutter, he was able to explain why.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s fair to say that the last election was undemocratic, but there are still democratic operations taking place in that country,\u201d Sanders said. \u201cThe point is, what I am calling for right now is internationally supervised free elections.\u201d<\/p>\n Donald Trump has taken a special interest in Venezuela, even going so far as to recognize opposition leader Juan Guaido as interim president, and Sanders took this opportunity to question why Trump attacks one oppressive regime but is friendly with another.<\/p>\n \u201cI do find it interesting that Trump is very concerned about what goes on in Venezuela, but what about the last election that took place in Saudi Arabia? Oh, there wasn\u2019t any election in Saudi Arabia,\u201d Sanders said. \u201cOh, women are treated as third class citizens. So I find it interesting that Trump is kind of selective as to where he is concerned about democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n Since they were on the subject of dictators, naturally, Sanders was asked about Trump\u2019s second summit with North Korea\u2019s Kim Jong Un, and Sanders actually complimented the president and encouraged him to take things further.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that the idea of going and meeting face-to-face with your adversaries is a good idea,\u201d Sanders said. \u201cI would like the president of the United States to bring Iran and Saudi Arabia together. To bring the Palestinians and the Israelis together.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In his CNN town hall Monday night, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT.) explained why he hesitates to call Venezuela\u2019s embattled president Nicol\u00e1s Maduro a dictator.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2195,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_mat_hreflang_tags":[],"addvideo":"","video_duration":"","farsit":"","target":"0","top_stories":"0","top":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[435,436,83,394],"class_list":["post-2194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-bernie-sanders","tag-nicolas-maduro","tag-saudi-arabia","tag-venezuela"],"acf":{"myctype":"change","target":false,"top_stories":false,"top":false,"farsit":""},"yoast_head":"\n