Appearing on MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports on Monday, Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson warned President-elect Donald Trump against reversing President Obama’s executive order opening diplomatic relations with Cuba. The liberal pundit argued that putting pressure on the authoritarian regime would be “the one thing that could keep Fidel Castro, metaphorically, and his revolution alive and his system of oppression alive...”
Robinson acted as if the United States was responsible for the lack of freedom in the Communist nation: “...why wouldn't we want them to have internet, why wouldn’t we want them to have cell phones? Let ideas flow in, let Americans flow in.” He further blamed America: “And I think our hardline policies frankly extended the life of the Castro regime beyond its sort of natural sell-by date.”
In her leading question to Robinson, anchor Andrea Mitchell framed any reversal in Cuba policy as impractical:
Let me ask you about whether Donald Trump will, in fact, as he threatened on Twitter today, roll back a lot of what has been done by President Obama by executive order....by executive order we now have internet service spreading throughout Cuba – still intermittent, as I can attest – cell phone service. We’ve got banking, we can use a credit card here....This is all done by executive order or by regulation, can be reversed. Do you think Donald Trump – from what we know of The Art of the Deal, his past interest in developing hotels here – is Donald Trump really going to unroll this and these contracts with the airlines, with banks and credit card companies and internet services? Can that be undone once the Cubans have tasted it?
Here is a full transcript of the November 28 exchange:
12:32 PM ET
ANDREA MITCHELL: And joining me now is Washington Post columnist and MSNBC political analyst, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Eugene Robinson, author of Last Dance in Havana: The Final Days of Fidel and the Start of a New Cuban Revolution. I think you wrote it in 2007 and he lived longer than many had either hoped or expected. As we know, a controversial legacy, but Fidel Castro’s lasting legacy, defying 11 American presidents and criticizing the opening that Raul negotiated in secret with President Obama. So he, if he were still in charge, would have opposed these economic reforms.
EUGENE ROBINSON: Yeah, I certainly believe so. You know, when I was traveling to Cuba to research that book, which I think came out in 2004, so it was even more premature than you give me credit for.
MITCHELL: Visionary.
ROBINSON: Look, I have a friend who wrote Castro’s Final Hours, I think, in like 1990. So we’ve been predicting his demise for a long time. But one of the stories I kept hearing was about what happened when Fidel Castro went to modern China for the first time. And you know, Raul Castro was impressed with the Chinese model of one-party state with economic liberalism, capitalism essentially, and all this development that had gone on. And apparently, Fidel Castro, as was reported to me, was horrified at what he saw in China. He hated it. He thought the inequality of income and the division of society into sort of haves and have-nots and the way some people were getting rich in all this development. He didn't like it one bit.
So he was, indeed, in that sense, a true believer in the decrepit, antiquated, oppressive Communist system that he put in place. And as long as he drew breath, frankly, I believe there were limits beyond which Raul Castro – in any attempt to modernize or to reform – limits beyond which it was difficult for him to go.
MITCHELL: Let me ask you about whether Donald Trump will, in fact, as he threatened on Twitter today, roll back a lot of what has been done by President Obama by executive order because Congress – only Congress can lift that embargo. And so, by executive order we now have internet service spreading throughout Cuba – still intermittent, as I can attest – cell phone service. We’ve got banking, we can use a credit card here. Never before could we, it was always cash because of the embargo and only a waiver because we were journalists. And all of this happening – not tourism because that's still prohibited – but people who come for cultural exchanges and there’s a very broad definition under the Treasury sanctions.This is all done by executive order or by regulation, can be reversed. Do you think Donald Trump – from what we know of The Art of the Deal, his past interest in developing hotels here – is Donald Trump really going to unroll this and these contracts with the airlines, with banks and credit card companies and internet services? Can that be undone once the Cubans have tasted it?
ROBINSON: Well, it would certainly run counter to Trump's history for him to follow through on that sort of hardline tweet that he put out this morning. But of course he is unpredictable. I actually think that if Trump were to try to reverse the Obama opening to Cuba that's the one thing that could keep Fidel Castro, metaphorically, and his revolution alive and his system of oppression alive, is to turn back.
I mean, you know, if you think about it, the way the United States approached other Communist countries was opening. And so why wouldn't we want them to have internet, why wouldn’t we want them to have cell phones? Let ideas flow in, let Americans flow in. It’s an enormous influence on a country, it certainly worked in Eastern Europe. I think it would work in Cuba, I think would have worked in Cuba a long time ago. And I think our hardline policies frankly extended the life of the Castro regime beyond its sort of natural sell-by date.
MITCHELL: Thank you so much, Eugene Robinson. Some of these, the remittances, the travel, are even popular in south Florida. Marco Rubio saying that we don't want to punish people, we do want some changes.
