WASHINGTON—United States Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) today joined The Evening Edit to discuss the ongoing protests against the Communist regime in Cuba.
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Partial Transcript
Hagerty on showing support for the Cuban people: “I’m shocked at the hesitancy of the Biden Administration. This is very obvious to the American people. We support freedom. We’re the most exceptional nation on the planet. We’ve always supported freedom. And I can’t imagine why this is a difficult decision for the Biden Administration. Just step up and show support of the citizens in Cuba right now. They’ve been oppressed by the Castro regime for years. This is finally the blossoming of freedom that’s taking place there, and it should be celebrated and supported. And I think we should be in a very different place than we happen to be right now.”
Hagerty on the threat of socialism: “This is where communism and socialism leads… I think maybe the Biden Administration is having a hard time criticizing this because of all the leftist, socialist policies that they’ve been pushing through right now and that they plan to push through… This is a lesson for America. This is where socialism leads. This is the misery that we all know will be the end result of these socialist policies are actually allowed to be pushed through. That’s why the Republican Party, that’s why my colleagues are here fighting as hard as we are every day.”
Hagerty on Biden’s hesitancy to speak out against socialism: “…that hesitancy, I think, is extremely troubling to the American people. Certainly to my home state of Tennessee. We need to stand as a beacon of freedom. And again, I think the problem, the hesitancy, is really seated deeply in the fact that they’re pushing socialist policies here in America. We need to be talking about this, and the American people need to be looking at this with their eyes wide open.”
Hagerty on aiding the Cuban people: “We absolutely could. And I was just talking with two of my colleagues right before I came on about ways that we could work with the private sector, about the ways the United States could be supportive in terms of turning back on internet access, allowing the Cuban public to see what’s happening, and allowing the rest of the world to find out what’s happening in Cuba.”