Nicolás Maduro Praises Bernie’s ‘Revolutionary Message,’ Bashes Hillary On ‘Anti-Imperialism’ Day In Venezuela

Bernie Sanders got some unwelcome praise from Venezuela’s socialist president Nicolás Maduro on Thursday, according to Franz von Bergen, who broke the story for Fox News Latino. Maduro voiced support for what he called Sanders’ “revolutionary” campaign message. The comments follow Sanders’ muted defense of his praising of Latin American leftist leaders Fidel Castro of Cuba and Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua in Wednesday’s Univision/Washington Post Democratic Debate. Maduro had less kind words for Sander’s Democratic primary rival, former Sec. of State Hillary Clinton.

Maduro reportedly called Clinton “arrogant,” and blamed her for various Obama policies forged while she headed the State Department. Maduro’s PSUV party has been at loggerheads with the U.S. for most of it’s history. Tensions increased on March 9 of 2015 when the Obama administration labeled Venezuela a security threat. “She is [...] an accomplice of all these policies against Venezuela,” he said, also accusing her of plotting a coup d’etat against Venezuelan ally and former Honduras president Manuel Zelaya in 2009. “There are emails that prove what Clinton did.”

The Clinton campaign has dismissed accusations that she helped legitimize the coup as “nonsense.”

In the past, Clinton has accused Maduro of attempting to rig Venezuela's elections.

“To date, [Maduro] has been doing all it can to rig the elections: jailing political opponents, blocking with trumped up charges, stoking political tensions,” she said ahead of midterm elections in the country last December.

Clinton supporters, meanwhile, have attempted so smear Sanders, a self-styled democratic socialist, by associating him with foreign politicians of various political stripes. Sanders only helped his critics on Wednesday night, when he praised the Cuban health care and educational systems. The Sanders campaign did not respond to a request for comment on this story and declined to clarify Sanders' comments on Fidel Castro.

Last September, pro-Clinton Super PAC Correct the Record tied Sanders to Hugo Chavez, as wells as UK Labour Party leader James Corbyn. That prompted Sanders to criticize Chavez and Clinton together.

“Hillary Clinton’s most prominent Super PACs attacked our campaign pretty viciously,” Sanders said in an email to supporters shortly after. “They suggested I’d be friendly with Middle East terrorist organizations, and even tried to link me to a dead communist dictator.”