Scarborough: Florida will be a ‘political bloodbath’ for Sanders after Castro, AIPAC remarks

MSNBC host Joe Scarborough on Wednesday predicted a “political bloodbath” for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in Florida’s upcoming primary, saying Sanders’s recent remarks regarding former Cuban dictator Fidel Castro and his absence from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conference will hurt him in the key state. 

“As we sit here on the other side of Super Tuesday now, there’s no doubt that Bernie Sanders is going to close the pledged delegate lead that Joe Biden has with his performance in California, [but by] how much? We probably won’t know that for a few days, but we are now in this race basically where we were in 2016,” Scarborough said.

“Which is to say, Joe Biden, with a very solid pledged delegate lead, one that will that be difficult for Bernie Sanders to close without some very large victories down the road,” the host of “Morning Joe” and former GOP Florida congressman continued. “And those victories will be very hard to come by for Bernie Sanders because of the fact that … there are some very big states, places like Georgia, places like Florida, where Bernie Sanders is in terrible position relative to that electorate, especially with the comments that came up last week about Castro and other things.”

“John Heilemann, add it up, you could talk about Castro, you can talk about AIPAC, calling AIPAC — suggesting that it was a racist organization. Why don’t you just go through every single demographic group in Florida and try to insult them one at a time?” Scarborough asked. “Baby, he’s done it. Florida is going to be a political bloodbath for Bernie Sanders.”

“Bloodbath,” Heilemann echoed.

Last month, Sanders praised the late Castro for his literacy program after taking power in Cuba, comments which angered many Cuban Americans in the swing state of Florida.

“When Fidel Castro first came to power, he initiated a major literacy program. There were a lot of folks in Cuba at that point who were illiterate,” Sanders said Monday. “He formed the literacy brigade. [Castro] went out and they helped people learn to read and write. You know what, I think teaching people to read and write is a good thing.”

The self-described democratic socialist also said he would not attend AIPAC’s annual conference because he argued the group expresses “bigotry” and opposes “basic Palestinian rights” while also referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a “reactionary racist.”

Sanders suffered a number of losses on Super Tuesday, losing his front-runner status to former Vice President Joe Biden, who has surged following a huge win in Saturday’s South Carolina primary.

Florida is one of the largest prizes left in the Democratic presidential primary and will be a key swing state in the general election against President Trump, who won the state by just more than 1 point in 2016.

Voters head to the polls in the Sunshine State on March 17.