Cruz on Castro: For Someone Who Murdered So Many ‘It Is Thankful He Is No Longer with Us’

CRUZ: "Well, look, this is a powerful moment for people all across the country and especially for Cuban Americans. I was with my dad when he found out the news that Fidel Castro was dead and he simply said praise God. You know, for so many of us whose families had been imprisoned, had been tortured, had seen the destruction of Cuba that Fidel Castro carried out, my dad as a teenager was imprisoned and tortured by Batista. He was beaten in a prison cell, had his teeth kicked out of his mouth. My aunt, my Tia Sonia (ph) whom I adore, she fought in the counter revolution against Castro, and she and her two best friends in high school were thrown in prison and tortured as teenage girls. And what they did to girls in Cuban prisons was unspeakable. And you know, I first heard that Castro had passed to final judgment with a text from my cousin BB (ph) who is my Tia Sonia’s (ph) daughter who just said that she got to call her mom and tell her mom Fidel is dead. And for a man who was tortured and murdered and oppressed for so many, it is thankful he is no longer with us."