A top Obama adviser demanded on Friday that Americans who fled Cuba’s communist regime be “held accountable” for opposing Obama’s disastrous policy toward the island nation’s dictators. Ben Rhodes, the author of the Obama administration’s policies easing sanctions on dictators in both Iran and Cuba, declared that opponents of Obama’s pro-Castro policy must be “held accountable” for opposing Obama-era policies that lined the communist regime’s pockets while doing little to help the Cuban people who have been oppressed for decades by the Castros.
Flanked by Cuban dissidents and victims of the Castro regime’s oppressive rule, President Donald Trump on Friday announced that his administration would be rolling back a series of pro-Castro policies enacted in the waning days of the Obama administration.
[Obama] made a deal with a government that spread violence and instability in the region,” Trump said, “but now those days are over.”
“The previous administration’s easing of restrictions of travel and trade does not help the Cuban people. They only enrich the Cuban regime.”
Trump invited Luis Haza, a Cuban-born violinist whose father was executed by the Castro regime when Haza was a child, to play the U.S. national anthem before the audience.
Trump also invited a woman who was once imprisoned by the Castro regime to join him onstage as he took a strong stance against the Obama-era policy that enabled Cuba’s leaders to starve their own people without consequence.
In Miami, Trump invites a woman who "was imprisoned by the Castro regime 15 years ago" to join him on stage https://t.co/lRt9XLrmkL
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) June 16, 2017
Ben Rhodes, a former Obama deputy national security adviser and architect of Obama’s soft stance towards dictators who jail dissidents, lashed out on Twitter against the Castro regime’s victims, saying they should be “held accountable.”
The few people in Miami enabling Trump in carrying out this charade should be embarrassed/ held accountable. He could care less about Cubans
— Ben Rhodes (@brhodes) June 16, 2017
Rhodes, who also declared that people who escaped communist rule in Cuba just don’t understand the country as well as he does, did not explain what he meant when he said refugees who fled Cuba deserved to be “held accountable.”
As many people on Twitter immediately pointed out, Rhodes’ response was ridiculous and flat-out false:
"The few people in Miami…"
Ignorant and telling statement. Cuban American community despised Obama policy.https://t.co/CqroeM9pNw
— Elliott Schwartz (@elliosch) June 16, 2017
Right, what would this woman know about anything? https://t.co/RyWTPDHdMs
— ❄️🧀GO PACK GO🧀❄️ (@PeteScottPPool) June 16, 2017
https://twitter.com/davidharsanyi/status/875774537912250370
Would think Cuban exiles oppressed under Castro regime have at least some standing to speak out… https://t.co/fPLbe50tLq
— Josh Kraushaar (@JoshKraushaar) June 16, 2017
Rhodes’ rhetoric demanding some unspecified punishment of minorities who had the audacity to oppose the previous administration’s Cuba policy comes on the heels of Wednesday’s politically motivated terrorist attack against Republican members of Congress. Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) remains in critical condition after being shot by a progressive Democrat activist who opened fire on the elected officials at a public park as they prepared for the Congressional baseball game, a bipartisan annual tradition.
In the wake of the shooting, many progressives condoned the terrorist attack on Republican lawmakers. The vicious attack followed months of increasingly violent rhetoric from progressives, many of whom admitted that they believed violence against their political opponents was justified.
A review of the Ben Rhodes’ Twitter feed shows that the former Obama adviser is yet to condemn the attempted assassination of Republicans. He instead spent the day tweeting about Cuba and attacking the president and his family.
