CBS Bemoans Collapse of Cuba’s ‘Once-Renowned’ Health Care, But Not ‘A Failed State’

Even though ABC pulled the exact same stunt in May, CBS Mornings chose Friday to take the hand of the Cuban communists for a hand-holding tour under the thumb of a U.S. oil blockade, leading to massive blackouts and a drain of basic necessities. The supposedly right-wing CBS lamented the state of affairs, even complaining the Trump administration’s policies have caused Cuba’s “once-renowned public health system” to collapse, but insisted it’s not yet “a failed state.”

Three teases set the table for the pillow-fluffing that was to come from chief correspondent Matt Gutman. Saturday co-host Adriana Diaz said Gutman went “inside Cuba for a rare look at the impact of a U.S. oil blockade.”

In the others, co-host Nate Burleson and featured co-host Vlad Duthiers complained “Cuba is running out of almost everything people need” – not because of the communist regime – but because of “a strict U.S. embargo” that’s created “shortages” that are “affecting everyone in the country, from children in hospitals to those waiting in bread lines.”

Diaz cued up Gutman by stating as fact that the “U.S. blockade of oil imports is blamed for a growing economic and humanitarian crisis.”

She continued: “The Trump administration has made it clear it wants to remove Cuba’s communist regime. On Thursday, the U.S. imposed new sanctions against Cuba’s state-run bank, claiming it has ties to Iran. Cuba’s foreign minister insists the bank is absolutely legitimate and calls the move collective punishment.”

From the start, Gutman’s tone was ominous:

As night falls in Havana, darkness grips the streets here, as a strict U.S. embargo on oil imports has left the country’s electrical grid in a state of new collapse. Right behind me, this is the Plaza de Armas. This is the beating heart of Old Havana. There are blackouts every single day. Most of these areas get power for about two hours. The energy crisis, coupled with crumbling infrastructure, has sent prices of basic goods skyrocketing.

Gutman moved to a liberal, elitist media favorite talking point about Cuba: universal health care.

This was the moment when Gutman argued the ration-driven system was “once-renowned,” channeling liberal journalists who came before him (such as when Fidel Castro died): “At this children’s hospital, we saw parents lining up for care. But doctors in Cuba’s once-renowned public health system tell us they can no longer source critical life-saving drugs for pediatric patients. With access to medicine scarce, some people have turned to free community-run pharmacies.”

He found two women who took different approaches to finding meds, with one going to the “free” pharmacy and the other turning to “black market street vendors” to buy Xanax.

He concluded his report by blaming Trump for the country going broke and forcing there to be bread lines (click “expand”):

TRUMP [on 09/22/26]: It’s an absolutely failed state. It’s failing like never before, and it will fall.

GUTMAN: In recent months, the Trump administration has amped up its pressure campaign on Cuba’s communist government, including new sanctions against its state-run bank unveiled Thursday. For the roughly two-thirds of Cubans employed by state entities, it’s just the latest challenge to securing money. Pensioners can wait for hours to collect their government wages, with some telling us they go hungry. How much are they getting a month? Only about $5 per person, depending on what they did for the government. To give you a sense of the purchasing power of $5 right now in Havana, that buys you about 30 eggs. And, at this bread line in one of Havana’s more upscale neighborhoods, we met Marilyn. She was picking up several lows for herself and friends, but with a government salary of less than $20 per month, she says she tries to stretch each baguette for at least two days.

Diaz resurfaced live to share they had planned to talk live with Gutman, “but the connectivity issues are so weak in Cuba that we couldn’t get a strong enough signal to bring him to you live.”

Remarkably, Burleson, Diaz, and Duthiers showed their biases by appearing utterly baffled that, in the rare available polling, Cubans are blaming their government for their state of affairs, not the U.S.

It was also here that Duthiers pushed back on anyone saying Cuba’s “a failed state” (click “expand”)

DIAZ: But something that really stood out to me when reading about Cuba, and I’ve reported from there a couple of times, is there was a recent survey that Vanderbilt did, surveying Cubans, and nearly three out of four Cubans blamed their own government for their crisis, not the U.S. government, despite the economic impact of the sanctions from the U.S.

DUTHIERS: It’s interesting, the President calls it a failed state. I wouldn’t characterize it as a failed state, but people are struggling there.

BURLESON: Yeah.

DUTHIERS: And it’s interesting to hear that Cubans blamed their own leaders.

DIAZ: Their own government.

BURLESON: Yeah, and not the U.S. intervention.

DIAZ: Yes, it is desperate.

To see the relevant CBS transcript from October 16, click here.