says. i m going to fight for the people who need fighting for in this campaign, win or lose. let me go on to another topic you took you went out of your way to make sure. you were answering a moderator s question that senator sanders didn t. it was on the issue of venezuela. he was asked why you wouldn t refer to maduro as a dictator. bernie sanders went on to call him a tyrant. he didn t address the dictator question. let me play the fight. venezuela does not have free elections but still you refuse to call maduro a dictator. can you explain why? and what are the main differences between your kind of socialism and the one being imposed in venezuela, cuba and nicaragua? first of all, let me be very clear. anybody who does what maduro does is a vicious tyrant. in terms of democratic socialism, to equate what goes
town hall with democratic presidential candidate bernie sanders wolf blitzer pressed senator sanders why won t you call maduro a dictator. is he? he s a corrupt dictator. he has a combination of an absolute dictatorship and a narco traffic state. he keeps generals around him in line by a combination of making them part of the narco trafficking and the moneys that proceed from it and at the same time by cuban security he has dividing the generals one against the other so they went think about creating a coup. there is no question he s corrupt. is it a mistake then for senator sanders not to call it by its name? absolutely. dictatorship is dictatorship whether from the right or left. dictatorship oppresses their people. i m really surprised that senator sanders could not at least call him a dictator. senator bob menendez of new
form of it will not only be better for the country but help him beat donald trump. senator bernie sanders. reporter: a self-described socialist warns against the leader and venezuela and declined to call maduro a dictator. why have you stopped short of calling maduro a dictator? well, he i think it s fair to say that the last election was undemocratic. but there are still democratic operations taking place in that country. reporter: that s just one take away from cnn s town hall with sanders. when i talk about democratic socialism, what i talk about are human rights and economic rights. reporter: conceding private historia health insurance would probably
severe economic mismanagement, failed social policies and corruption. showdown is a choice of between right and wrong. the maduro regime has decided to continue to starve its people. but, in the meantime, you have venezuelan armed forces who right now have the choice to side with the people that they committed to serving and allowing aid to come in. pete: something has to change for those forces to make a whole scale shift to the opposition. dictators don t give up their power voluntarily. think saddam hussein, think muammar qaddafi. because they don t have another option. so you know our leaders in our state department and defense department and white house are considering new measures, considering the fact that maduro effectively blocked the aid and said i don t care what you want. katie: back here at home becoming obviously a political topic as well. senator bernie sanders has been a fan of venezuela. praised their policies in the past and just recently refused to call maduro a
president maduro a natural political ally of communist china and that is no surprise given that maduro rival the more moderate social democrat democrat who on why doe has declared himself interim president is more open to the west why don t has also vowed to examine the country s financial deals with china that s something that hasn t gone down too well in beijing but china has also traditionally taken a pragmatic approach two years ago chinese and quiet those people discussed what approach the opposition would take to existing financial agreements should they come to power some experts suggest it shows that china s support from a duro isn t set in stone so let s look into that a bit further and talk to our correspondent in beijing which is not on the line as we speak you might come to my come to a bit later in the show s us stay tuned for that. coming to another story globally