New York City mayor and 2020 Democrat candidate for president Bill De Blasio quickly issued an apology yesterday after a video of him quoting socialist mass murderer Che Guevara in Miami went viral. De Blasio drew harsh criticism not only from Miami’s Cuban American community, but from Florida Democrats and Republicans and others across the country as well.
For Miami’s Cuban exile community, De Blasio’s insensate choice of words was highly offensive. Che Guevara was a ruthless and coldblooded killer who murdered hundreds of innocent Cubans in service to the socialist Castro dictatorship. Miami is filled with Cuban exiles because they all fled Castro’s socialist revolution, where Guevara played an integral role in jailing, torturing, and murdering innocent victims.
De Blasio’s stupidity did not go unnoticed by his campaign, which prompted him to issue a hasty apology (via CBS News):
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio says he did not mean to quote Ernesto “Che” Guevara, the iconic Marxist revolutionary who helped install Fidel Castro as Cuba’s dictator, during an appearance in Miami on Thursday.
“Hasta la victoria, siempre!” de Blasio said at a rally for striking airline workers at Miami Airport. The quote, which translates to “Ever on to victory,” is associated so closely with Guevara that it appears alongside his portrait on t-shirts and buttons sold as symbols of revolution.
De Blasio later said that he did not mean to quote Guevara.
“I did not know the phrase I used in Miami today was associated with Che Guevara & I did not mean to offend anyone who heard it that way. I certainly apologize for not understanding that history,” de Blasio, who in his twenties was an outspoken supporter of Nicaragua’s socialist Sandinista movement, tweeted Thursday afternoon.
“I only meant it as a literal message to the striking airport workers that I believed they would be victorious in their strike,” he said in a follow up tweet signed “BdB.”
So the only thing De Blasio can offer is a claim of ignorance. De Blasio is actually claiming he did not know Che Guevara uttered the infamous “Hasta la victoria, siempre” phrase and expects America to believe that.
There is one small problem with his assertion of ignorance: It is quite a preposterous claim.
De Blasio must have forgotten we now know he honeymooned in communist Cuba with his wife, where billboards with Che’s face and that exact quote are plastered all over the island. We also know De Blasio has a long history of supporting murderous and brutally repressive socialist dictatorships like the Sandinistas.
So what De Blasio’s “apology” is really saying is that he thinks the American people are stupid enough to believe he had no idea where that phrase came from.
I just love the way the 2020 elections are looking. Btw, you nailed it Alberto.
The inane phrase, which could hardly be more banal, is written below the giant Che effigy EVERYONE has seen, including most certainly this lying asshole when he visited Cuba. What a total POS.
Well, to be fair, there’s a precedent for this, and it is impeccably PC: Mandela’s notorious Miami visit.
This “faux pas” may have been a deliberate ploy to get LOTS of attention in a very crowded field and score points with the “progressive” crowd nationwide. The guy knows he was never going to get the vote of the people he offended anyway, so he might as well look beyond Miami.
Oh, and “Bill De Blasio” (like Sanders and AOC) has no upper lip. Bad sign.
And heeeeeere’s Bill:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BzQ8qs-odnU/
But of course he had no idea he was quoting Che. Not a clue.