11th Democratic Primary Debate: on Foreign Policy

Barack Obama: 2016: Cuba made progress in education and healthcare

Joe Biden: [Obama] was trying to change Cuban policies so the Cuban people would get out from under the thumb of the Castro and his brother. That is, to change the policy so that we can impact on Cuba's policy by getting them opened up.

Bernie Sanders: Barack Obama was more generous in his praise of what Cuba did in healthcare and education than I was. I was talking about a program 60 years ago in the first year of the Castro revolution.

Biden:Bernie's notion about how he embraces folks like Cuba and the former Soviet Union and talks about the good things they did in China is absolutely contrary to every message we want to send the rest of the world.

Bernie Sanders: China is authoritarian but eliminated extreme poverty

Sanders: I don't think this is the time for recrimination, to be punishing people. Now is the time to be working with China. They are learning a lot about this crisis and we have got to work with them. We've got to work with the World Health Organization. We've got to work with countries around the world. If there was ever a moment when the entire world is in this together, got to support each other, this is that moment.

Q: So you'd work with authoritarian regimes, such as China and Cuba?

Sanders: I believe in democracy, not authoritarianism in Cuba or any place else. China is undoubtedly an authoritarian society. But would anybody deny that extreme poverty in China today is much less than what it was 40 or 50 years ago? That's a fact. So, I think we condemn authoritarianism--but to simply say that nothing ever done by any of those administrations had a positive impact on their people, would I think be incorrect.

Joe Biden: Insist on our experts in China, we have to lead the world

Joe Biden: I insisted, the moment this broke out, that we should insist on having our experts in China, in China to see what was happening, and make it clear to China there'd be consequences if we did not have that access. We have to lead the world. We need someone who knows how to bring the world together and insist on fundamental change in the way in which we're approaching this.