Marco Rubio Says Obama ‘Worst Negotiator President Since Carter’ After US-Cuba Policy Revealed
Marco Rubio does not support President Obama’s new U.S.-Cuba policy. The Republican Florida Senator called Obama the “worst negotiator president since Carter.” A White House press conference was held by Obama after the Alan Gross release from a Cuban prison. As previously reported by Inquisitr, Gross spent five years behind bars on espionage charges in the Communist nation.
Senator Rubio said that the “Cuban Five” prisoner swap for Alan Gross “set a price on the head of every American abroad.” The new Cuban policy announced by President Obama includes allowing U.S. banks to open accounts in Cuba, eased travel restrictions, permitting Americans to use credit and debit cards while visiting the Communist country ruled by Raul Castro, and enhanced exports of agricultural products.
“I would love for there to be normal relations with Cuba, but for that to happen, Cuba has to be normal, and it’s not. It is a brutal dictatorship,” Senator Marco Rubio said during an ABC News interview regarding the U.S.-Cuba diplomatic negotiations and President Obama’s new Cuban policy. The creation of a U.S. Embassy in Havana in the coming months was also revealed a possibility.
“Now dictatorships know that if they take an American, they may be able to get unilateral policy concessions,” Senator Rubio added.
Marco Rubio also feels that the Obama administration’s bid to normalize diplomatic ties with Cuba will be “terrible for the Cuban people.” Raul Castro has not agreed to any free speech, free and open elections, freedom of the press, or the creation of political parties in his Communist country. Cuba remains on the list of states that support terror. Removal from the list is something President Obama will reportedly soon begin working on, as his efforts to end the Cuban embargo move forward.
“Five years from now Cuba will still be a dictatorship, but a more profitable one. Just because people can buy Coca Cola [will not improve Cuban lives] I think this has now made it even harder to achieve the sort of democracy in Cuba that you find virtually everywhere else in this hemisphere,” Senator Marco Rubio maintains.
After Senator Rubio deemed President Obama the worst negotiator since President Carter, he amended his statement by adding, “worst negotiator of my lifetime.”
Rubio asked, “What have the Cubans [Raul Castro and the Communist government] agreed to do?”
The Florida Senator believes that President Obama will “give up everything in exchange for nothing.”
“The United States today, under this president, has opened up relationships with the most brutal dictatorship this hemisphere has known for the better part of 50 years,” Marco Rubio said. “And all it’s done is it’s sent a signal to others fighting for democracy in the region and around the world that the US is not a reliable partner when it comes to fighting for democracy.”
What do you think about the US-Cuba Alan Gross Cuban Five prisoner swap, Obama’s new Cuban policy, and Senator Marco Rubio’s comments?
[Image via: Get In Travel]
