‘Tighten the screws’: Marco Rubio, Ron DeSantis up criticism of Biden administration’s Cuba policy

DeSantis Rubio
A Hannity town hall addressed the Cuba question.

It was double trouble for President Joe Biden on Fox News’ Hannity, with two leading Florida Republicans amping up the pressure on the The White House to help liberate Cuba.

Invoking the Monroe Doctrine and the familiar contours of the Cold War, U.S Sen. Marco Rubio and Gov. Ron DeSantis urged Biden to move faster and “tighten the screws” on the communist regime in Havana.

“Step up and be on the side of freedom,” DeSantis said, goading Biden to move on his proposal to beam the internet into Cuba to evade blockades from the regime that effectively silence the dissidents’ message.

“He has it in his authority to do that,” DeSantis said. However, “as of now, he’s sitting there and doing nothing.”

“Right now, we can’t get him to do the internet, how can we get him to do anything else,” sniped Rubio, later in the program.

DeSantis advised a tough posture, building a coalition to make sure the world knows that the “free world stands with the people of Cuba.”

“Let’s get real here. Let’s understand who the people are who stand on the side of freedom and stand with them.” the Governor said. “Let’s tighten the screws on the regime.”

He contended that Trump tightened the screws on Cuba and Venezuela, which put pressure on “malign actors in the Western Hemisphere.”

DeSantis also maligned the “completely open southern border,” offering a callback to Florida’s deployment of forces to Texas, where they apprehended undocumented immigrants. A majority of them, he’d said previously, were headed to Florida.

“There were people from the Middle East, from Haiti, you name it,” DeSantis said Wednesday.

Rubio also spotlighted a robust Russian presence in Cuba, noting military and trade cooperation between Moscow and its long time client in Havana. He also predicted it wouldn’t matter in the end.

“In the end, it’s not going to save this regime,” Rubio said, calling it “mortally wounded” and a “dying animal.”

DeSantis cited the Monroe Doctrine as a good guidepost for policy regarding the Western Hemisphere.

“We don’t want to have any influence from Russia and China,” DeSantis said, urging an appeal to the Organization of American States, one that Rubio and many other members of the Florida Delegation have already signed off on.

“Without Cuba, there is no Maduro, there is no Ortega. They are the source of all evil in the Western Hemisphere,” Rubio said of the communist regime.

Meanwhile, a Democratic candidate for Governor suggested the town hall on Fox was just agitprop for the base.

A.G. Gancarski

A.G. Gancarski has been the Northeast Florida correspondent for Florida Politics since 2014. He writes for the New York Post and National Review also, with previous work in the American Conservative and Washington Times and a 15+ year run as a columnist in Folio Weekly. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter: @AGGancarski


17 comments

  • Michael Hoffmann

    July 21, 2021 at 11:07 pm

    “He [DeSantis] contended that Trump tightened the screws on Cuba and Venezuela, which put pressure on “malign actors in the Western Hemisphere.” ”

    Some pressure — made things worse for ordinary citizens!

    Let’s live up to our exceptionalism, insofar as it survives, and assist Haiti with its immediate material needs and all of Latin America and the Caribbean with COVID vaccinations.

    Enough with the war drums, Ugly Americans. (DeSantis ought to know better since he was on a battlefield once.)

  • Tom

    July 21, 2021 at 11:48 pm

    Hoffman as usual you fumble the point. Gov DeSantis is right on point again. He’s offered good ideas along with Sen Rubio and Cong Salazar. Also, why is Nikki Fraud being interjected in this discussion. POTUS is apparently weighing Governor DeSantis & Sen. Rubio ideas not Nikki Frauds. Pleased let’s elevate the effort not lower it with Nikki Fraud.

    • Michael Hoffmann

      July 22, 2021 at 3:32 pm

      So, Thom, going to send in the Marines?

  • Ocean Joe

    July 22, 2021 at 8:44 am

    For starters, it would be helpful if the Cuban American community spent less time labelling Biden a socialist, or a communist. And exactly what have Nixon, Reagan, Bush 1, Bush 2, and Trump delivered for Cuba?
    When the US Embassy workers in Havana were injured by microwaves or whatever it was, that was an act of war.
    Biden’s history includes a fair amount of warmongering, so maybe you will get your wish. A free Cuba would be an economic powerhouse in short order. Florida would benefit.

  • Frankie M.

    July 22, 2021 at 9:51 am

    Any discussion of DeSantis anti-protest law at the dog & pony show? Didn’t think so. You don’t need to go to Cuba to see protesters getting locked up…its right in our own backyard but by all means keep waxing philosophical about totalitarian regimes. I doubt DuhSantis even knows what the word hypocrite means much less how to spell it.

  • Tom

    July 22, 2021 at 10:41 pm

    Frankie, Ocean & Hoffman, it was this POTUS who said he’s reviewing Gov DeSantis & Sen Rubio plan on internet access with balloon coverage. You don’t have to send the marines in.
    Gov Ron is America’s Governor and he proved it again. Senator Rubio demonstrates why he’s shoulders above the lecturing one Val, no contest.

    • Michael Hoffmann

      July 23, 2021 at 8:55 pm

      Yeah, Thom, the internet ballon plan is still up in the air — where it it likely to stay.

      • Tom

        July 24, 2021 at 1:01 am

        FCC said they can do it.
        Just needed POTUS to sign off.
        As usual Dems have nothing to offer.
        Dems support communist Cuba.
        Commie lovers.
        What’s your plan Hoffman?

      • Tom

        July 24, 2021 at 10:21 am

        Hey Hoffman, get it straights . It’s “Tom” as you misspell. Didn’t they teach you proper at commie school.
        You are commie lover with your gal AOC. Dems are on the wrong side of history on every issue. Amazing that all the illegals are adults now. Not children like liberal lies. Yes, you media and Dems are fake news artists. The FCC said they can do it and POTUS said he’s reviewing but it won’t matter anyway as he walked when needed.

        • Michael Hoffmann

          July 26, 2021 at 5:27 pm

          I’m too old for AOC but she does have a lot going on! A working-class woman who has good politics! Why wouldn’t I be fond of her? I don’t agree with everything she posits — nor would she align with my views necessarily.

          As for misspelling names, Thom, read my tag line and try to spell my name correctly.

          • Tom

            July 31, 2021 at 9:39 am

            LMAO, AOC working class woman.
            She’s a Soros puppet trainer. Give me a beak. Manchurian clown show.
            Just Elite, hypocrite who’s actually a do nothing. Oh let me think, a Nikki Fraud want a be. LMAO.
            Did you hear the fraud says she not for lockdowns. DeSantis wins!

          • Tom

            July 31, 2021 at 9:43 am

            LMAO, AOC working class woman.
            She’s a Soros puppet trainer. Give me a beak. Manchurian clown show.
            Just Elite, hypocrite who’s actually a do nothing. Oh let me think, a Nikki Fraud want a be. LMAO. You fall for all the losers:
            Did you hear the fraud says she not for lockdowns. DeSantis wins!

          • Tom

            July 31, 2021 at 9:51 am

            LMAO, AOC working class woman.
            She’s a Soros puppet trainer. Give me a beak. Manchurian clown show.
            Just Elite, hypocrite who’s actually a do nothing. Oh let me think, a Nikki Fraud want a be. LMAO. You fall for all the losers:

          • Tom

            July 31, 2021 at 9:51 am

            LMAO, AOC working class woman.
            She’s a Soros puppet trainer. Give me a beak. Manchurian clown show.
            Just Elite, hypocrite who’s actually a do nothing. Oh let me think, a Nikki Fraud want a be. LMAO.

          • Tom

            July 31, 2021 at 9:51 am

            LMAO, AOC working class woman.
            She’s a Soros puppet trainer. Give me a beak. Manchurian clown show.
            Just Elite, hypocrite who’s actually a do nothing. Oh let me think, a Nikki Fraud want a be.

  • Tom

    July 31, 2021 at 9:54 am

    AOC working class woman.
    She’s a Soros puppet trainer. Give me a beak. Manchurian clown show.
    Just Elite, hypocrite who’s actually a do nothing. Oh let me think, a Nikki Fraud want a be.

  • Tom

    July 31, 2021 at 9:54 am

    AOC working class woman.
    She’s a puppet trainer. Give me a beak. Manchurian clown show.
    Just Elite, hypocrite who’s actually a do nothing. Oh let me think, a Nikki Fraud want a be.

Comments are closed.


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