Hillary Clinton and Donna Shalala
Hillary Rodham Clinton, Former Secretary of State (L) stands with Donna E. Shalala, President of the University of Miami, during an event at the University of Miami's BankUnited Center on February 26, 2014 in Coral Gables, Florida. Clinton is reported to be mulling a second presidential run. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

KEY POINTS

  • Sanders targeted for his remark favoring Cuba's literacy program
  • Shalala, Mucarsel-Powell refuse to vote on Sanders remarks
  • Florida representatives make it a point to condemn Castro regime

Bernie Sanders' surging presidential campaign has put the Democrat establishment in a difficult spot but the party stood by the Vermont senator on Thursday when House Republicans targeted him for his remarks on Cuba.

Republican Congress members moved a resolution condemning Sanders for what they called praise for Cuba during Tuesday night’s debate and Sunday’s 60 Minutes appearance. Sanders has consistently said Fidel Castro’s regime was not all bad after taking over Cuba, annoying some Cuban-Americans and their Congressional representatives in south Florida.

Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fl., who represents a district with 335,000 residents of Cuban descent, introduced the resolution — which “condemns the comments of ... Bernie Sanders, disregarding the history of systemic human rights abuses, forced indoctrination, and authoritarian actions of the literacy and education policies of the Communist Castro dictatorship in Cuba.”

The resolution could also be read as a political ploy to draw Reps. Donna Shalala, D-Fl., and Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, D-Fl., into voting to support Sanders. Voting for a self-proclaimed democratic socialist would hurt the freshmen's reelection hopes among thousands of Cuban-Americans.

The vote was blocked 224-189 along party lines. Neither Shalala nor Mucarsel-Powell voted.

The freshmen fought back. For instance, Mucarsel-Powell tweeted, “The Castro regime murdered and jailed dissidents, and caused unspeakable harm to too many South Florida families. To this day, it remains an authoritarian regime that oppresses its people, subverts the free press, and stifles a free society.”

Shalala, who stood by President Bill Clinton when his sexual escapades were exposed, and continued to sit on the cabinet as secretary of health and human services for both terms, tried to have her cake and eat it too on Thursday.

She sided with Diaz-Balart about the Castro regime. “I have always stood with (Diaz-Balart), and alongside our constituents, to denounce the evil Cuban regime,” she said on the House floor.

However, she refused to vote on the resolution because it was not related to the bill, she said.

The resolution was attached to a bill claiming to attack tobacco usage among youth by banning most flavors from vaping products. It passed 210-200.

Cuba