President Donald Trump went back on his vow that the U.S. will blockade all money and oil headed to Cuba, with a Russian oil tanker making its way to the communist-controlled island.
But according to The Washington Post, some of the GOP's most staunch anti-Cuba crusaders are tripping over themselves to excuse Trump's empty words.
"Trump and his hawkish allies don’t view the shipments as lifting the pressure off of Cuba," said the report. For example, Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, a Cuban-American congresswoman representing South Florida and one of the nation's most outspoken opponents, said, “What he’s doing is just doing a small, little humanitarian gesture. The regime is not going to be able to survive by receiving one tanker every three months. ... We know that the pressure is on max.”
Meanwhile, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, also a former lawmaker from Florida and son of Cuban expats, told Al Jazeera, “if Cuba really wants to emerge from the hole they’ve put themselves in ... they really need to undertake very serious reforms of both their government and of their economy. And if they’re willing to do so, we’re going to help them. We’ve done nothing punitive against the Cuban regime.”
Democrats, for their part, are going on offense in pointing out Trump's lack of follow-through.
Alexander Vindman, the former Ukraine whistleblower now running for Senate in Florida, went after incumbent Republican, saying, “The Cuban people suffer under the brutal Castro dictatorship and Ashley Moody stays silent while millions of dollars’ worth of Russian oil flows to prop up the regime. This is a lifeline to a system that jails dissidents, crushes protests, and denies basic freedoms. At this moment the Cuban regime led by Miguel Díaz-Canel is weaker than it has been in years — why is Ashley Moody refusing to speak out? Why is she allowing a critical opportunity for real pressure and reform to slip away?”
Trump has repeatedly assured the nation that Cuba will join Venezuela and Iran in regime change, despite neither of those other countries actually having meaningful regime change as of now.