Ben Rhodes

And then ultimately, we're not going to be the ones to determine it.

We're not going to be the ones to pick the next leader of Cuba.

But we think that will work better than what we've been doing for 60 years.

Trump came in.

He, over time, with the urging of Marco Rubio in the first term, basically rolled back all of the opening in terms of travel and investment and things like that.

Trade.

Trade.

They kept the embassies open, so the diplomatic relations piece remained.

Right.

And then over time, they squeezed and squeezed and squeezed.

Biden was a chicken shit and was afraid to go back to the Obama policy because he was afraid of Bob Menendez.

So we somehow got the Trump policy through Joe Biden's administration in the same way that Biden was afraid to come back into the JCPOA because he was afraid of Bob Menendez and FDD for criticizing him.

Well, that's great.

Literally, that's what happened.

But the point is that now Cubans are suffering more than they ever have, I think, in their history.

Because in addition to the sanctions, there's now a fuel blockade on Cuba from the Trump administration.

You have people dying because of those sanctions.

I think Americans don't like to think about that.

But the reality is when power goes off, babies in the NICU and people on ventilators die in hospitals.

You've got extreme malnourishment in Cuba.