Warnock in 2016: Fidel Castro Had a ‘Complex’ Legacy

During a debate on Sunday, Georgia Senate Democrat candidate Rev. Raphael Warnock‘s Republican rival Sen. Kelly Loeffler criticized Warnock for stating two days after Cuban strongman Fidel Castro died in 2016 that the Communist dictator had a “complex” legacy.

Warnock delivered these remarks two days after Castro died on November 25, 2016: “We pray for the people of Cuba in this moment. We remember Fidel Castro, whose legacy is complex. Don’t let anyone tell you a simple story; life usually isn’t very simple. His legacy is complex, kind of like America’s legacy is complex.”

During this same sermon, Warnock also alleged similarities between the United States and Castro’s rule over Cuba, claiming that America also has its own political prisoners: “While we focus on political prisoners in Cuba, you saw the folks standing here this morning. If some people get slapped on the hand for the same crime and others go to federal prison, then we too have our own political prisoners, because politics more than the crime – politics of race and class, and in that sense many of us have sisters and brothers who are political prisoners.”

By contrast to Warnock, Loeffler correctly called Castro a “murderous dictator” during the Georgia Senate debate.