Cuban-American doctor says the left has a 'terrible blindspot' for Cuba's health care system
Dr. Grazie Christie responds to Bernie Sanders, Barack Obama's positive comments on Cuban health care
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A Cuban-American doctor explained Wednesday why Cuba is a "terrible, corrupt nation" after prominent socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., praised the communist country's policies.
"To talk about health care in Cuba is to talk about one of the saddest things on Earth," Miami physician Dr. Grazie Christie told "Fox & Friends."
Christie said, "there is no health care in Cuba for the regular people." She explained further that there are clinics for foreign visitors and tourists and there is one special hospital for the communist elite. The hospitals and clinics for everyone else are "covered in roaches and rats and have no equipment."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}BERNIE SANDERS DEFENDS FIDEL CASTRO'S SOCIALIST CUBA: 'UNFAIR TO SIMPLY SAY EVERYTHING IS BAD'
"They have no medicine. They have no gauze. When a Cuban person in Cuba needs to have an operation, they call their family members here in Miami to send them gauze, syringes, suture material, and that’s what they use in Cuba for operations," Christie said.
"The Cuban people have nothing for themselves."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has a long history of praising Cuba's regime, which is currently cracking down on protesters demanding freedom after decades of communist rule.
Sanders faced scrutiny for initially remaining silent on the protests that erupted across Cuba over the weekend, before issuing a statement late Monday night. His statement urged the government to refrain from violence, but also criticized the U.S. for its trade embargo on the island country.
Sanders defended his past praise for deceased Cuban dictator Fidel Castro in an interview he gave last year as he was leading the Democratic presidential primary. Video footage unearthed last year showed Sanders recalling his excitement for the communist revolution during a speech in the 1980s.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Sanders' office didn't return an email from Fox News inquiring whether he regrets any of his past comments about Cuba.
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Christie said that left-wing officials' failure to condemn communism is "a terrible blindspot" and "could be malicious because they do not like the way Cuban-Americans vote."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}She encouraged public officials to go online to read Cuba’s State Department website to learn about the conditions of Cuba’s health care system. Christie described Cuba as a "terrible, corrupt nation where the people suffer indescribable poverty" that is "imposed from above.’
"Because there is plenty of money in Cuba pouring in all sorts of ways, the Cuban government is very wealthy but they keep that money. That money goes to their own bank accounts and the people suffer tremendously," she said.
"Any assistance that we get, any time that we interact with the Cuban government, the Cuban government makes itself stronger, increases its hold and gets richer."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Fox News' Peter Hasson contributed to this report.