CBS News blamed former President Donald Trump and his administration’s policies for Cuba’s poverty and broken economy, instead of the island’s communist regime.
In a Monday segment of “CBS This Morning,” the corporate media outlet amplified President Miguel Díaz-Canel’s claims that the anti-authoritarian protests erupting in Cuba are objecting to economic backsliding caused by Trump’s sanctions and designation of Cuba as a “state sponsor of terrorism” shortly before he left office.
“On Cuban television, Díaz-Canel blamed the protests on the U.S. and its trade embargo for a severe impact on Cuba’s recent economic downturn,” the news narrator stated.
CBS then brought on Portia Siegelbaum, a CBS News producer in Cuba, to echo the authoritarian regime’s excuses and pile onto the anti-Trump narrative.
“The Trump administration passed many more regulations, many more sanctions against it, which basically has cut off all income coming into Cuba,” she said. “I think the Biden administration, he at least said at the beginning he was going to review this policy and make changes but nothing has happened.”
https://twitter.com/kjdrennen/status/1414604161476349955?s=20
Thousands of Cubans gathered across the island to protest the communist regime by yelling for “Liberty” and “Freedom” and demanding Díaz-Canel resign. While Díaz-Canel continues to deflect blame for the country’s increasingly dire COVID-19 and economic conditions, others say this outrage was a long time coming.
“Cuba does not have a president, Cuba has a manager that manages the Castro family’s business center, one of which is the island of Cuba,” Marcell Felipe, founder of Inspire America, told The Federalist. “There is no longer revolution. All that’s left is a dictatorship. It’s evolved into a criminal enterprise that uses politics to justify their criminal activity … this middle-level manager that they’ve appointed tries to hide the fact that communism doesn’t work. It hasn’t worked in Cuba, it hasn’t worked anywhere.”
The Biden White House called the protests “spontaneous expressions” and failed to issue a harsh condemnation of communism, socialism, or the regime that caused what Press Secretary Jen Psaki merely labels “economic mismanagement.”
Press Secretary Psaki shuts down allegations that the U.S. embargo is to blame for protests in Cuba, doubling down on her position that economic mismanagement by the Cuban government is the driving factor while STILL not mentioning "socialism" or "communism." pic.twitter.com/IHNcrwzv5k
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) July 12, 2021
https://twitter.com/thejcoop/status/1414633095765143554?s=20
Sympathetic responses from corporate outlets like CBS, paired with the White House’s failure to harshly condemn the communist regime, received backlash from fed-up U.S. legislators.
“We must stand with the people of #Cuba who have taken to the streets to demand freedom!” Republican Rep. María Elvira Salazar tweeted.
🚨#SOSCuba🇨🇺
We must stand with the people of #Cuba who have taken to the streets to demand freedom!
The Castro regime has shutoff the internet on the island.
The dictatorship doesn't want the world to see the repression.
But, that won't stop us.https://t.co/hQNExC7Zy5
— María Elvira Salazar 🇺🇸 (@MaElviraSalazar) July 12, 2021
https://twitter.com/MaElviraSalazar/status/1414407654672412676?s=20
The protests in #Cuba began over 24 hours ago
And you forgot something 👇 pic.twitter.com/5oeLVPtUGY
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) July 12, 2021