"The Cubans also have two medicines, one for diabetes, of which my mother died for, lung cancer, which my father died for, and I would like to have those drugs tested in the United States."

Said Karen Bass — a congresswoman on Biden's VP shortlist — on "Meet the Press" today when she was prompted by Chuck Todd to talk about what seems to have been her "celebrating" of the Fidel Castro regime in Cuba.

My bullshit detector went off at "diabetes, of which my mother died for, lung cancer, which my father died for." I don't doubt that her mother died of diabetes and her father died of lung cancer, but obviously they did not die for their disease. I don't think that's an error that arises out of ignorance of proper English. I think that's the kind of thing that gets out when you're thinking something different from what you are saying.

And what are the drugs that they have in Cuba that aren't even tested here? I'd like to know. Bass was oddly enthusiastic about Cuban medicine and purported to have expertise:

[F]or the last 20 years, I've actually been working on health care related issues in Cuba. You know, the Cubans train U.S. doctors. And I've been recruiting those doctors to work in the inner city because they come in tuition free....

What does that mean — "they come in tuition free"? If doctors are working in a U.S. city, they need to be paid. What does that have to do with tuition? Are these less-well-qualified doctors but good enough for the "inner city"?! I had to look it up. Cuba has long had a program where it takes in a few U.S. students for tuition-free education. The graduates of the program are required to do "community" medicine, but I still can't understand the sentence "I've been recruiting those doctors to work in the inner city because they come in tuition free" unless I interpret "because" to mean nothing at all.

Bass goes on to say that she knows "the Castro regime has been a brutal regime to its people" and "there is not freedom of press, freedom of association." Chuck Todd reminds her that when Castro died, she called him “comandante en jefe” and then said she didn't "quite realize how sensitive folks were in South Florida about this still." Still! Yeah, get over it South Floridians.

She says "in Florida ['comandante en jefe'] is a term that is endearing to him" — that is, it's a term of endearment — but that she didn't mean it that way because she was "expressing condolences to the Cuban people, to the people in Cuba, not Cubans around the world," and she doesn't think it is "a toxic expression in California."

Chuck Todd suggests that there are people in Cuba who might have celebrated the passing of Castro. She says "maybe" and concedes that in Cuba they could not have openly celebrated, but she doesn't connect that to the problem of her failure to support Cubans who have objected to the regime. She pivots to: "So I think that it is just very important, the way the Obama administration had opened up relations with Cuba, I think the best way to bring about change on the island is for us to have closer relations with a country that is 90 miles away." And, later: "[M]y position on Cuba is really no different than the position of the Obama administration. As a matter of fact, I was honored to go to Cuba with President Obama. I went to Cuba with Secretary Kerry when we raised the flag. So there really isn't anything different."

Bass did not inspire my trust. And I don't think Chuck Todd appeared to be buying it either — video. I got the impression that she has been focused on her district in California — which is fine for a member of Congress — and has no experience making herself palatable at the national level.