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Floor Speech
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Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Mr. President, the measure we are talking about is completely out of touch with the facts in Cuba, nor is it relevant to anything actually happening in Cuba right now.
President Trump has never suggested we put troops on the ground in Cuba, so this entire effort is moot.
The only reason I can think a Democrat would propose this is for a fundraising email showing how they are fighting President Trump tooth and nail.
I want to note that elected Democrats have turned up violent rhetoric against this President in the last several years, resulting in yet another radicalized leftwinger attempting to assassinate President Trump on Saturday night. And my Democrat colleagues still refuse to fund paychecks for the Secret Service agents who stopped the shooter or for the ICE and Border Patrol agents protecting Americans lives. But since Democrats refuse to fix that problem they created, let's talk about the resolution before us today.
I am from Florida. We probably have more Cuban Americans in Florida than any State in the country, and they have been unbelievably successful in our State. So I am really--I always love to talk about Cuba, and I am glad the Democrats want to talk about Cuba.
Since the 1959 socialist revolution, the authoritarian dictatorship has refused to hold free and fair elections in Cuba. So there are no elections in Cuba. There is no duly elected President in Cuba. The Castro regime has killed Americans and its citizens, and they cozy up to our enemies--Russia, communist China, Iran, and Hezbollah.
Democrats say they are the party of democracy, so where is their concern for the anti-democratic dictator operating 90 miles from the shore of Florida, 90 miles from the shore of the United States?
Many Democrats--some in this Chamber--are embracing socialism and even embracing a violent socialist leader, Hasan Piker, that wants me murdered. He says I should be murdered; capitalists should be murdered; 9/11--we deserved it; anti-Semitic; and he supports the regime in Cuba.
Some Democrats have even gone to Cuba with Piker, attempting to whitewash the atrocities of the illegitimate, communist regime. Now, when they went there, did they go to the prisons to see any political prisoners? Did they ask about any political prisoners? Did they try to get one political prisoner released? Not one. One Democrat Congresswoman even said after her trip that ``Cuba has a remarkable public health system.'' If you talk to political prisoners and you talk to their families, that is not exactly what they would tell you.
Some Democrats say they want socialism. Where has that succeeded? Nowhere. It results in misery and death for everyone but the regime leaders. Everyplace that has tried, it has always failed, and the only people that succeed are the regime leaders.
Right now--right now--for decades, Cuba has been unjustly imprisoning hundreds of political prisoners just for demanding elections and complaining that the regime is failing to provide electricity. There is a 6-year-old boy in prison right now because he complained his family didn't have electricity. Have I heard one of my Democratic colleagues say ``Oh, that is wrong''?
When they say that under Obama, things were better, oh, did all the political prisoners get released? No.
There is a photo right here. What year do you think this was taken? Do you think it was taken during the Second World War at a concentration camp, a Holocaust survivor? Do you think it was maybe from a Soviet prison?
What year do you think, Mr. President? What is your guess as far as the year this was taken?
This was taken just a few miles from the Florida shore, probably less than 100 miles from our shore, just a few weeks ago.
This individual--his name is Alexander Diaz Rodriguez. If you look at the before-he-went-to-prison picture, he doesn't look 30 years old. But he is a political prisoner. He was tortured, starved, isolated. He was denied this unbelievable healthcare system in Cuba even though he has cancer--all because he opposed the socialist regime. Not one of my Democratic colleagues here, not one of my Democratic colleagues who went down to Cuba did one thing to get him out of prison.
This is the misery of the people of Cuba. This is the face of the misery of the people of Cuba.
The President of Cuba just had an interview with mainstream media. Did not ask one question about the political prisoners. Didn't ask any of these things.
A lot of people never want to look at these pictures, never want to post these. I am going to look at this, and I am going to talk about this as long as possible. We all should be thinking about, this is the face of the regime in Cuba, and when you go support the regime in Cuba, you are supporting what they are doing to an individual like Alexander.
Democrats in this Chamber will choose to oppose President Trump but not Cuba's illegitimate, communist dictator, Miguel Diaz-Canel.
The real reason we are discussing this is what one of my Democratic colleagues said. My Democratic colleague said he plans to keep introducing these resolutions just to criticize President Trump, waste our time and ask ``Have you seen enough?'' One of my Democratic colleagues even admitted that on national television.
But again, President Trump has never said that he wants to put boots on the ground. I don't think any of my Republican colleagues have said it. Even Lindsey Graham has not said it.
So this resolution is defending the regime that is oppressing people like Alexander Diaz Rodriguez.
I will ask my Democratic colleagues to take a look at this picture. Look at this picture, and think of what that regime is doing. This is what the Cuban regime is doing to the people right now.
So, to my Democrat colleagues, have you seen enough? Have you seen enough to say this has to stop?
President Trump is doing everything he can to bring back freedom and democracy all across Latin America, and we should do everything we can to support him. This President has never said he wants to put boots on the ground.
This is a complete waste of our time, and it is a complete insult to Cubans in Cuba and to Cubans in my State.
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