Marco Rubio

07/22/2021 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 07/22/2021 15:08

Rubio Joins Hannity Town Hall at Versailles Restaurant to Explain Why Socialism Has Failed the Cuban People

Miami, FL - U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) joined Hannity for a live town hall discussion on Cuba at Versailles Restaurant in Miami, Florida. Watch their conversation hereand see below for highlights.

On why socialism doesn't work:
'Well, first of all, Cuba shows that socialism doesn't work. Marxism doesn't work. It has nothing to do with prosperity. It's about controlling people. A Marxist system wants to keep people poor, because poor people are easier to control. A Marxist system is about leveraging people -- basically saying you are not going to have food, medicine unless you'd agree to do what we want. That's the first thing. The second thing is it's a tyranny. 'Tyranny doesn't promote competence. The leaders of Cuba aren't just evil, they are incompetent people. In Cuba, you don't get promoted for being smart, you get promoted because you are loyal, because you're compliant, because you give in. The third is that they are liars. They always have to live. Everyone of them are liars.'
On the U.S. embargo towards Cuba:'There is no U.S. embargo against the Cuban people. If a Cuban tonight wants to open up a Versailles in Cuba, they can and we can sell them stuff. The only embargo is on the Cuban regime because they own everything. Every business, every hotel, restaurant: they own it. They own every single one of them. And what President Trump did, the policies that he put in place, were very simple. If you are a private citizen of Cuba, you can open up a private business and we will do trade with you, but we are not going to do trade with military-owned companies, because all of that money goes into their pocket. 'The people of Cuba, and especially now that they have had access to the internet, they realize, they see how their cousins, their families are living outside of Cuba. Cuban-Americans are less than half of one percent of the United States population. They have been presidents, CEOs of major corporations, presidents of universities, ambassadors, members of the Cabinet, successful in every field, entertainment, art. They even represent three percent of the United States Senate even though we [Cubans] are half of one percent of the U.S. population. That intelligence and that talent are poised to rebuild that country.
On the Biden Administration succumbing to the Cuban regime: 'This is what tyrannies do and that's what Marxism does. They hold people hostage. The Cuban people, they are hostages. They say, 'look, these people are going to starve, these people are going to suffer, unless you send more money, it goes through our hands.' The remittances go to a bank that the military set up in Panama. You send the money, they take 10% off the top. Then they take your dollars away from you. They turn it into this Cuban currency that is worthless. It's worthless in Cuba. Imagine everywhere else. And then they keep the dollars. It's a scheme. And they are walking us right into the trap and you've got two people in charge of Cuba policy right now in the Biden Administration who want to open it all up. The lady at the State Department was the one who was organizing trips to take congressmen and senators to Cuba to grovel all over the Cuban regime. So of course these policies are schizophrenic. The people in charge of it are sympathizers. 'We live in the freest, most prosperous nation in human history, and yet somehow we have a segment of the population overrepresented in the radical base of the Democratic Party that find every problem in the world and say it's America's fault. Behind every problem in the world, America must be doing something wrong to cause this problem. 'These people exist. I'm not saying the majority of the Democratic Party. I'm saying the ones who raise the money, that knock on the doors. They are crazy. 'I think some of these people in the Biden Administration had their way, they would probably want to send the Russian Administration remittances too. That's their thought process about all of this, 'what's the big deal?' 'The Russian presence in Cuba is real, it's already there. They have a major spy station there in Lourdes… They are already there. It wouldn't surprise me if they sent some of these military contractors they use all over the world. But in the end, it's not going to say this regime. This regime has been mortally wounded. It's lost its legitimacy. I'm not telling you it's going to be quick and it's going to be easy, but it's a dying animal and we need to do everything we can to expedite its passing.'