Why Were Walz, Biden, and Others in Communist Countries?

(Editor's Note: The following opinion column does not constitute an endorsement of any political party, or candidate, on the part of Newsmax.)

In the 1930s, if any Republican politician chose to go to Adolf Hitler’s Germany for his honeymoon, they would have been hounded from office.

But in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s three Democrats and one Independent (with close ties to the Democrats) chose to go to communist countries for their honeymoon.

One of them is Tim Walz, the newly minted Democratic vice-presidential candidate. We need to know why.

In 1989, Walz moved to Communist China to teach at a high school for a year.

He later said it was "one of the best things I’ve ever done."

Five years later he married and chose to honeymoon there.

He has been to China at least 30 times.

When Tim Walz was chosen to join Vice President Kamala Harris on the presidential ticket, the Chinese state media noted his frequent trips there and praised him for "fostering cultural exchanges."

Under Mao Zedong, who ruled China from 1949 to 1976, 77 million people were killed, far outdoing the body count under Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin.

While Walz has criticized human rights abuses in China in recent years, he's never explained why he would honeymoon in a nation with a history of mass murder.

Nor has he explained why he’s reticent about condemning Communist China for threatening the security of Taiwan.

Walz has much in common with Joe Biden.

In 1977, then-Senator Joe Biden, D-Del., spent his honeymoon with his second wife, Jill, in a Communist-run country: Hungary.

But he did more than celebrate his marriage. According to Daily News Hungary, he met with Communist officials and "had some secret meetings during his stay."

It was a weird place to go to at the time.

In 1956, Hungarian young people staged a revolt protesting Soviet domination. Tens of thousands took to the streets for six days before they were crushed by the communists.

Mass arrests and executions followed, and some 200,000 Hungarians fled to Austria and Yugoslavia before the borders were closed.

Why would Biden choose to honeymoon behind the Iron Curtain?

That’s a long way from Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who frequently caucuses with the Democrats, spent his honeymoon in the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR).

The communists killed 66 million — mostly under Stalin.

Like Walz, Sanders has never explained why he would honeymoon in such a blood-stained country. He did so in 1988. While he was there he condemned U.S. foreign policy, but said nothing about egregious human rights abuses in the USSR.

In 1972, Sanders said that U.S. policy in Vietnam was "almost as bad as what Hitler did."

In 1985, he had a friendly sit-down with Daniel Ortega, the communist dictator of Nicaragua.

In 1989, he visited Castro’s Cuba, praising the communists for their healthcare system, schools and housing, but saying nothing about the political prisoners being held.

Today he refuses to condemn the oppressive Marxist regime of Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela.

In 1994, former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio went on his honeymoon to Cuba.

What he did was illegal, but that didn’t matter.

He purportedly never told his children about this — they reportedly found out after he admitted it on television. They were told their parents honeymooned in Canada.

In 1988, de Blasio went to Nicaragua, seemingly to support the Sandinista regime.

In 1990, he said he supported "democratic socialism" (which is an oxymoron), but when he was asked about this by The New York Times in 2013, he denied it. When the reporter said he has the evidence, de Blasio said, "It doesn’t matter."

It does matter to the American people that left-wing political leaders cozy up to communist totalitarian dictators.

Biden has already been erased by Harris, De Blasio is out of office and Sanders is going nowhere, but for Walz, that is a different story.

He needs to come clean.

It's one thing to teach in Communist China, quite another to celebrate a wedding there.

Why all the back-and-forth trips?

Dr. Bill Donohue is president and CEO of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights. A former Heritage Foundation Bradley resident scholar, he's authored 11 books on civil liberties, social issues, and religion. He holds a Ph.D. in sociology from New York University. His new book, "Cultural Meltdown: The Secular Roots of Our Moral Crisis," was released in June, 2024. Read Bill Donohue's Reports — More Here.