The NPR Politics Podcast - Can Joe Biden Turn Florida Blue With A Savvy Response To Protests In Cuba?

Episode Date: July 14, 2021

Faced with food and fuel shortages, Cubans have begun unprecedented protests against the country's communist government. President Biden's response could help boost Democratic support among Florida's many Cuban American voters. The party has lost a number of key elections in the state, thanks in large part to lackluster support among conservative expatriates who hope to see Democrats take a harder line against Cuba's communist government. This episode: congressional correspondent Susan Davis, White House correspondent Franco Ordoñez, and international correspondent Carrie Kahn.Connect:Subscribe to the NPR Politics Podcast here.Email the show at [e-mail] the NPR Politics Podcast Facebook Group.Listen to our playlist The NPR Politics Daily Workout.Subscribe to the NPR Politics Newsletter.Find and support your local public radio station.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Hey, this is Katie calling from Louisville, Kentucky. I'm sitting out on our porch with our new four-day-old baby, catching up on politics from last week that we missed and enjoying an iced coffee. This podcast was recorded at 1.08 p.m. on Wednesday, July 14th. Things may have changed by the time you hear this. Okay, here's the show. I also concur with needing an ice coffee at this moment in time because it is still very hot out there and that hasn't changed yet. Incredibly hot. Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm Susan Davis. I cover Congress. I'm Franco Ordonez. I cover the White House.

And thousands of people have taken to the streets to protest in Cuba against the country's communist government. And Carrie Kahn covers Cuba for NPR and she's back with us again. Hey, Carrie. Hi. country's communist government. And Carrie Khan covers Cuba for NPR. And she's back with us again. Hey, Carrie. Hi, I hate to admit this. But when I was on maternity leave, there were no podcasts. But there was NPR. But there was NPR. There was NPR. And I was an avid listener at the time. Well, obviously, we have a lot of US politics we want to talk about when it comes to the situation in Cuba. But before we get to the domestic side of this, what are these Cuban protests about? I just want to stress that in all the time I've been covering Cuba, I have never seen anything like this.

This is extraordinary, unprecedented, every adjective that you could think of. This is just unprecedented times in Cuba. This has been brewing for, you could say decades, but this summer and this last year has been particularly difficult during the pandemic in Cuba. But the economic situation in Cuba has just been terrible. During the Trump administration, the sanctions that were placed against Cuba were even tightened and tougher. And so the economic situation has just been horrible. Food is scarce on the island. People line up for hours to get basic foodstuffs.

I remember I was there, I think it was two years ago, maybe three. And just to get chicken on the island would take hours. And now with COVID and cases rising, the situation just reached a boiling point. And what we saw on Sunday were protests, people just losing their fear and going out in the streets and protesting. But since then, what we have seen were a lot of people, dozens of people rounded up, arrested, severe crackdown, and the internet pretty much shut off in Cuba. Wow.

Franco, you've been reporting on this from the White House perspective. You had a great line in your reporting this morning from a Democratic pollster who called these protests, quote, a gift from the gods for President Biden. What's he talking about? You know, at the same time that thousands were marching in the streets of Cuba, there were also hundreds, if not thousands, of Cuban Americans who have come out in the streets of Miami in solidarity. And this is a community, the Cuban American community, a very important community, which is a very crucial voting bloc in the nation's largest swing state, Florida, of course. And it's also a

community that has been very skeptical of Biden and the Democrats. And there, you know, have been lingering concerns in South Florida about Biden and the Democrats after a disinformation campaign that the Democrats are, you know, in essence, sympathetic to socialist leaders in Latin America. Now, Biden lost Florida, you know, last year, of course, and that was in part because Trump had made big gains in Miami-Dade County, which is about 70% Latino. And frankly, what that pollster is saying in the gift, a gift from the gods, is that Biden actually has an opportunity to change some of those perceptions. And that if he plays it right and takes an active role in encouraging change in Cuba, that he could beat back some of those stereotypes. But if he doesn't, and he just kind of,

you know, has a, you know, more of just puts out statements without following up with action, then he could actually hurt himself politically and allow those perceptions to really cement themselves in, you know, such a crucial, you know, voting bloc in such a crucial state. It's fascinating to see this play out because Cuba, unlike events in other countries, really prompts such a response from American politicians. Already today, the Republican National Committee is hosting a press call about it. Val Demings, who's a Democrat from Florida, who's trying to unseat Marco Rubio, I would note a Cuban American and a Republican in Florida, and next year's Senate

race is out with weighing in on the situation in Cuba. I mean, there really is a sense of political pressure for those in Florida that you can't be neutral on this issue. You have to weigh in on what happens in Cuba whenever there is something of interest happening in Cuba. Yeah, there's no question about it. I mean, Florida, this past election just showed how important Florida is. And Florida has always been important. And what's interesting about it, it is how this issue of Cuba has kind of shifted over the years. The U.S. had really strong policies against the Cuban government for decades, including a trade embargo. It was a way to punish the government for its communist policies and human rights abuses

and also to try to force them to open up the country to democracy. You know, that changed during the Obama administration. He wanted to try something different to ease more normalized relations with the Cuban government when he was in office. So he shifted policies to one of engagement. He visited the island. He eased travel restrictions and even opened up some opportunities for trade. You know, but former President Donald Trump, you know, kind of reversed that and showed that, you know, he could make it work with a very strong, you know, strong opposition to the Cuban government. And he closed many of those policies of engagement. He increased sanctions and he even put Cuba back on the list of state sponsors of terrorism. And it appeared in part to work and to be successful.

Hence why Biden appears among the people that I'm talking to. He's been very careful and reserved and not wanting to go too far on Cuba at the time. He certainly is not moving back yet to Obama's policies, which he had talked about, at least on the campaign. If I could just say, you know, just from the foreign perspective, watching in Cuba and being there during that sort of whiplash of foreign policy shifting, it was just painful to watch in Cuba. You know, I was there when Obama visited. And just the hope that the Cuban people had that something might shift, something might change, was just amazing to feel. And then I was actually there too, when former President Trump gave that speech

in South Florida, sort of ditching everything that Obama did, and then hardening all the sanctions again. And then over the last four years, really, really digging in deep and hardening and putting even more sanctions and hardening the embargo and just the flip side and watching the suffering. You know, how many people live in Cuba? 11 million people. It's like, they're the ones that are dealing with this back and forth US policy against Cuba. And we also have to talk about the government of Cuba that just won't budge also, and keeps their hard line too. I don't want to give them a break either. All right, let's take a quick break

and we'll talk more about this in a second. The economy is changing so fast right now and sometimes it seems like there's something new to worry about every day. On the indicator from Planet Money, we bring you human stories and easy to understand explanations to help you make sense

of these crazy times, all in just 10 minutes a day. That's The Indicator from Planet Money. And we're back. And Franco, Carrie was just talking about sort of the human impact of this whiplash of policy from the U.S. when it comes to Cuba. So let's talk about what the policy perspectives or options are right now from the Biden administration. What do people want to see Biden do here? Well, you know, we heard it, you know, this week from Senator Marco Rubio, who, you know, is obviously a senator for Florida and also very in line with, you know, conservative Cuban Americans. And, you know, he spoke out that, you know, first and foremost, they want to make sure that Biden does not lift some of the sanctions that Trump put in place that we talked about earlier. He also wants the administration to help protesters in different ways, including putting up these free satellite internet access so that they can communicate.

Kerry talked about the government taking down internet. This might be an opportunity to be able to get that internet back so that demonstrators on the ground can continue to communicate and get messages out. There's also talk about, you know, Senator Rubio and other conservative Cuban Americans also want the United States to rally allies to, you know, in the Western Hemisphere, as well as in Europe, to condemn Cuba's repressive actions. You know, and I will say on the Democratic side, you know, that same Democratic pollster from Florida, who I talked to earlier, also encouraged Biden to come to South Florida and kind of show his face and talk directly with the Cuban-American population to demonstrate his support. Carrie, do you have a sense of what the Cuban people are looking for from the U.S. to do right now?

Well, it's hard to hear directly from Cubans right now what they want to do. I think what they want right now is some humanitarian help. They want food. They want medicine. They want help from COVID. And they do want a crack in the government right now to have more freedom of expression. And they want their internet back. Exactly.

That you hear a lot. But from the Cuban government, what we've been hearing on Sunday, President Miguel Díaz-Canel got on TV and he took a very hard line. He's, as always, the U.S. is always to blame for all of Cuba's ills. You know, it's the U.S. embargo that has strangled the economy of Cuba from the get-go for decades and has left the economy in shambles. You know, they blame the U.S. embargo for everything, for every pothole in every street in Cuba, for everything. And so we heard that from the get-go. They even accused the protesters for being paid by the U.S. That one took a very hard line on Sunday. On Monday, the president was back

on TV, national TV. He was a little bit more conciliatory. He said he understands that the Cuban people are suffering and that there are legitimate gripes. But then he still took a hard line saying it was the US's fault. And then yesterday, I could play you a little bit of the foreign minister who was on. He still said the same thing. It's the embargo, the embargo. But then he had some specific words for President Biden and statements that U.S. officials had made saying that the Cuban people have the right for freedom and they have the right to express themselves. So what he's saying is that if President Joe Biden really wanted to help the Cuban people, what he would do is with the stroke of a pen, he could lift some of the sanctions and some of the

hardening of the sanctions and the measures that Donald Trump took with his executive orders. He could do that on his own. He doesn't need legislative action. He could do that with executive orders. And he's calling on Biden to lift some of the more punitive measures that Trump had put in force. And I don't know if that's something that Biden wants to do. He made that, that was a promise, right, during the campaign, Franco, no? But he has no inclination to do that right now. Yeah, I mean, that's right. I mean, he had made these campaign promises to kind of ease back some of these sanctions, but those were largely at least put on hold as they are now currently doing a policy review. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said this week that that review of

policies of Cuba continue, and they are looking at how the administration can help the protesters. But, you know, I've spoken with other experts who just point out that the administration must be really careful in not making things worse, especially, for example, for the demonstrators in Cuba. You know, I spoke with a former NSC official from the Obama administration who said, you know, the Biden team has to be careful not to act too much of a cheerleader. No, totally. I totally agree. It's so true, because like if they encourage them at all, then the Cubans just say, look, they're supporting them. They're paid protesters. This isn't spontaneous. This isn't organic. That's what they always do. Yeah, I mean, it gives the Cuban government an excuse to crack down on the protesters or delegitimize their efforts by, you know, portraying them as American stooges. But, you know, the risk is if they're too careful and they don't do enough, politically,

that could just fuel the disinformation campaign that started last year, you know, arguing that Biden and the Democrats are socialists. It's a tough, tough balance. All right. I think we're going to leave it there for now. But Carrie Khan, as always, thank you so much for coming on the podcast and helping us sort through all this. Oh, thanks for having me. It's really important. I'm Susan Davis. I cover Congress. I'm Frank Ordonez. I cover the White House. And thanks for listening to the NPR Politics Podcast.