Throughout her MSNBC show on Thursday from Panama at the Summit of the Americas, host Andrea Mitchell wrung her hands over the Obama administration actually trying to stand up to a Latin American dictator: "...there are other issues here, including recent sanctions by the U.S. against Venezuela, which have really upset the Cubans and a lot of America's close allies here, Costa Rica and Colombia and others, who are not happy about the wording of that sanctioning of Venezuela, Cuba's closest ally."
NBC White House correspondent Chris Jansing agreed: "...the Obama administration looked at seven Venezuelan officials and put them on that list. And they said, 'Look, these are people who have done human rights abuses.' A lot of people saw that as a bad move, something that, at least the timing of it, couldn't have been worse..."
Wrapping up the exchange with Jansing, Mitchell gushed over President Obama's upcoming meeting with Cuban dictator Raul Castro at the summit:
And when the President does meet with Cuban's President Raul Castro here at the Summit of Americas tomorrow, it's going to be the first meeting between U.S. and Cuban leaders since 1956, when President Eisenhower met with President Batista, then the dictator, the leader of Cuba who was, of course, ousted by the Cuban Castro revolution.
As the show continued, Mitchell kept fretting over the U.S. taking action against Venezuela's authoritarian regime. Speaking to former Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, Mitchell worried: "Speaking of wrong steps, was it wrong for the President – who was going to be greeted here very warmly by Latin American neighbors because he lowered the bar against Cuba, which had isolated the U.S. in the Latin American community – what about what he did, what the White House did, with Venezuela only a few weeks ago?"
Gutierrez replied: "It seems like a miscalculation. And right now the White House is doing damage control."
Talking to another guest minutes later, Mitchell declared that Cuba had a "hard choice" to make about allying with Venezuela or the U.S.: "Has the White House, deliberately or not, given Cuba a really hard choice between pursuing the opening on a rapid pace with the United States and being loyal to its closest ally during the hard times when Cuba was completely isolated, which is Venezuela?"
Author Julia Sweig responded: "...this was a very significant miscalculation and one that the White House is trying to walk back....it was a very significant mistake to President Obama's own strategy vis a vis Cuba and Latin America as a whole, as you've been discussing."
With a third guest at the end of the show, Mitchell again decried the move: "And there's a lot of tension also because of Venezuela, because of what happened out of the White House on Venezuela. Can the people at the summit, the leaders get past that, do you think? Is this going to be a hiccup or a real problem in U.S./Cuban relations going forward do you think?"
Julie Katzman of the Inter-American Development Bank concluded: "I certainly hope that they will be able to because there's a lot to discuss that's on the agenda that's important for the region as a whole."
Mitchell couldn't find a single guest who thought that the United States standing up against human rights abuses in Venezuela was a good thing.
Appearing on Thursday's Rachel Maddow Show, Mitchell denounced the U.S. for placing Cuba on the State Sponsors of Terror list:
I think that the designation of Cuba as a terror sponsor has long been sort of intellectually bankrupt, because Cuba has not sponsored terror for, you know, many, many years. I mean, the last known incident was Cuban Migs shooting down the brothers to the rescue in 1996 from Miami and they do not, by any measure, belong in the same category as the other states on that list and it has become just a terrible, more than a thorn in their side, it has, they believe, prevented American banks from letting Cuban diplomats in New York at the U.N., and in Washington, at their intersection, to have any kind of normal banking, any credit and that has made their lives and their work experience miserable and the administration agrees with that and has been pleading with the U.S. banks to help, but they say until this terror decision is lifted.
On Thursday, CNN reported on Cuba harboring fugitive terrorist and cop killer Charlie Hill.
Here is a transcript of Mitchell's April 10 exchange with Jansing:
12:07 PM ET
KRISTEN WELKER: And we want to go back out now to our other major story, to Andrea Mitchell in Panama. Andrea.
ANDREA MITCHELL: Thank you, Kristen. And here in Panama, we're preparing for an historic event. Cuba joining the Summit of Americas for first time after President Obama in December ended the U.S. policy of blocking Cuba from attending. President Obama is going to arrive later this evening, right now he's on a one-day visit to Jamaica. But here in Panama City we've seen clashes between small groups of pro and anti-Castro protesters, some of them disrupting a meeting Wednesday of non-government aid organizations, where former President Bill Clinton was speaking.
BILL CLINTON: If you are an NGO, if you are part of civil society, the core value you must never give up is that you are fighting for decent treatment for the people you represent because our common humanity is more important than our interesting differences.
MITCHELL: The big questions here in Panama City at the summit, how substantial will any discussions between President Obama and President Raul Castro be? When will the U.S. remove Cuba's terror designation, a key obstacle to normalizing relations?
Joining me now on that, NBC's senior White House correspondent Chris Jansing, also here in Panama City. Chris, the President just now has said they have the recommendation from the State Department and we have that recommendation but the President wants an inter-agency process, he said just now to the group with him in Jamaica, that they will not be announcing it today. Of course he doesn't really arrive and speak at the summit until tomorrow. And let's play a little bit I think we have – on a very windy day here in Panama City – a bit of what the President just said in Jamaica.
BARACK OBAMA: There's a process involved in reviewing whether or not a country should be on the State Sponsor of Terrorism list. That review has been completed. Our inter-agency team will go through the entire thing and then present it to me with a recommendation. That hasn't happened yet.
MITCHELL: Chris Jansing, this has become a very big issue for the Cubans. The President, the timing, this has to be carefully orchestrated because there are other issues here, including recent sanctions by the U.S. against Venezuela, which have really upset the Cubans and a lot of America's close allies here, Costa Rica and Colombia and others, who are not happy about the wording of that sanctioning of Venezuela, Cuba's closest ally. Chris.
CHRIS JANSING: You're right about that, Andrea, obviously. I mean, on the face of this, this was going to be the headline that was very positive, right? Because this is the third time that President Obama has come to the Summit of Americas but the first time that Cuba has been allowed here. And frankly, White House officials admit that the last two times when they wanted to talk about things like immigration and trade, all that was discussed at the summits were, "What about Cuba?" So now they've removed that, but obviously you have other complications here.
Let's start with what we just heard from the President, which is about the removal of the designation from the terrorism list. This is something that they've been looking for, looking at. And there are a lot of reasons why – you've been to Cuba many times, Andrea, so you know the economic difficulties that are there – and they think that this will open up tremendous new opportunities that a lot of countries, a lot of businesses that were loath to go into a country that was on that very limited terror list now will be more willing to do that.
It also opens up a pathway for both embassies to open, something that at least originally back in December, when the President announced this effort to normalize relations they hoped might happen by now, it's not going to happen, but that would be an important next step.
And then finally, you bring up President Maduro and the difficulty there because the Obama administration looked at seven Venezuelan officials and put them on that list. And they said, "Look, these are people who have done human rights abuses." A lot of people saw that as a bad move, something that, at least the timing of it, couldn't have been worse because it gives Maduro an opening to say, "Yeah, the United States says here we're opening a new front, we're giving – we have a new policy toward this part of the world but on the other hand he's going after Venezuelan officials." So he has to navigate all of those things as he arrives here later tonight, Andrea.
MITCHELL: Chris Jansing, thanks so much, a very complicated puzzle here.
And when the President does meet with Cuban's President Raul Castro here at the Summit of Americas tomorrow, it's going to be the first meeting between U.S. and Cuban leaders since 1956, when President Eisenhower met with President Batista, then the dictator, the leader of Cuba who was, of course, ousted by the Cuban Castro revolution.
