Democrats Fail To Stand For Freedom

As The Cuban People Are Marching For Freedom, Many Democrats Are Silent

CUBANS DEMAND FREEDOM

• Thousands of Cubans are bravely fighting against their island’s Communist regime, risking their lives to call for freedom in an “eruption of discontent not seen in nearly 30 years.”
• In response, the dictatorship shut down internet access and had dissidents arrested, kidnapped, and physically assaulted. 
• The Biden administration and Democrats falsely blame the current unrest on COVID-19 and the U.S. embargo, instead of decades of oppression, communism, and tyrannical rule.
• It took Biden days to condemn communism as a failed ideology, with his administration refusing to forcefully stand up for the Cuban people.
• Republican leaders, on the other hand, stand completely with the Cuban people’s brave push for their God-given rights and freedoms. 

BIDEN HAS FAILED THE CUBAN PEOPLE

• The Biden administration slow-walked taking strong action in defense of the Cuban people.
• Biden has failed to provide stable internet access to Cubans to document the abuses taking place. 
• The Biden administration tried to tout placing sanctions on the special brigade of the Interior Ministry in Cuba, but in reality, the Ministry was “already covered” by existing sanctions. 
  • The Associated Press’ Matt Lee: The Biden administration’s action didn’t “do anything new.”
• Biden has pushed for the same reconciliatory approach to the regime as Barack Obama did – to disastrous effect.
• While Biden’s open borders policies are encouraging hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants from over 160 countries to pour across the border, Biden’s DHS secretary warned Cubans actually facing oppression from their communist government that they will “not be permitted to enter the United States.”

DEMOCRATS ARE NOW QUIET ON CUBA

• Biden initially refused to condemn communism, with his first statement failing even to mention the word.
  • Instead, Press Secretary Jen Psaki chalked protests up to “mismanagement.”
• Many Democrats “don’t want to go hard” on the Cuban regime because they agree with their socialist agenda. 
• Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) blamed the U.S. – not communism’s failures – for the protests in Cuba.
  • Ocasio-Cortez: “What’s extraordinarily important for us to communicate as well is the actions, U.S. contributions to the suffering of Cubans on the island as well.”
• Four House Democrats are associated with the far-left Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), a group which declared its solidarity with Cuba’s communist regime.
• Rep. Val Demings (D-FL) initially “declined to take a position” on whether she supports the embargo.

DEMOCRATS ARE CUBA APOLOGISTS

• Members of the Democrat Party have been apologists for Cuba’s communist regime for decades.
• In 2016, Barack Obama praised Raúl Castro and the Communist regime, saying they “should be congratulated” for making “great progress” and a “huge improvement” in education and health care.
• In 1985, Bernie Sanders praised Fidel Castro for “totally transform[ing]” Cuban society.
  • In 1986, Sanders said he was “excited” by the rise of Fidel Castro in the 1960s and said that John F. Kennedy’s opposition to communism in Cuba made him want to “puke.”
  • In 2020, Sanders again praised Castro’s “literacy program.”
• In 2016, Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) memorialized Fidel Castro’s legacy as “complex” upon his death.
  • Warnock did not object when his church hosted Fidel Castro in 1995, and received thousands in donations for his 2020 campaign from the senior pastor who called Castro “one of the great leaders of the world."
• In 1996, Biden’s Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra visited Cuba on a “fact-finding” mission, and refused to call for free and fair elections in Cuba afterward.
  • Becerra met with Fidel Castro on his trip, but refused a request from Freedom House to take an aid package for the Cuban people.
• Bernie Sanders, Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA), and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) praised the Biden State Department for removing Cuba from their list of state-sponsored terrorists. 
• Lee has spoken highly of Fidel Castro, saying she was “very sad for the Cuban people” when she learned of his passing.
• Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA) referred to Castro as "comandante en jefe" (commander in chief), and said his passing was a “great loss to the people of Cuba.”
  • Bass has been a socialist sympathizer for decades, having been a part of the radical pro-Castro Venceremos Brigade in the 1970s.