After damning testimony by James Comey, Miami\u2019s Sen. Marco Rubio \u2014 who is seeking a Trump reversal of Obama\u2019s Cuba engagement policy \u2014 defends the president.<\/b>
\nIt may be hard to fathom outside of Miami, but the faraway island of Cuba and Cuban-American politics could have played a role in Thursday\u2019s historic hearing of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Did the influential Republican senator from Miami on the committee, Marco Rubio, trade the integrity of this country for the pledge of a U. S. policy shift on Cuba from President Donald Trump? The optics \u2014 and the timing of a yet unscheduled visit by Trump to Miami to announce a rollback advocated by Rubio of President Barack Obama\u2019s engagement policy \u2014 certainly make it seem that way.
Before Rubio\u2019s intervention, the testimony by former FBI director James Comey had grown impressively damning to President Trump in the same manner a steady, thoughtful, and detail-oriented prosecutor builds a case.
Comey testified that, in a series of uncomfortable conversations before Trump fired him, the president had given him high praise and demanded loyalty. Trump made it known to him that he wanted the criminal investigation into National Security Adviser Michael Flynn dropped and the \u201ccloud\u201d of the investigation into Trump\u2019s campaign ties to Russian interference \u201clifted, \u201d Comey said.
There\u2019s no understating the moment \u2014 it was grave.
Obstruction of justice easily came to mind \u2014 but then, it was Rubio\u2019s turn to ask Comey questions.
Or, more like it, to turn Comey\u2019s testimony around and ask rhetorical questions that inserted doubt into Comey\u2019s candid revelations. Rubio shifted the attention from Trump to leaks to the media. As for information, Rubio seemed most interested in getting Comey to publicly admit that President Trump \u201cwas not personally under investigation\u201d than in obtaining any new evidence for the Senate investigation.
It was as if Rubio \u2014 who has become a fixture at the White House and has voted to confirm all of Trump\u2019s controversial appointments \u2014 was acting as Trump\u2019s defense attorney instead of as member of a bipartisan committee investigating crucial national security issues.
Rubio\u2019s defense comes from a senator who called Trump a \u201ccon man\u201d when they were both running for the Republican nomination, and who vowed to become the checks-and-balances senator the president might need. Well, this was the moment \u2014 and Rubio was only there to cast doubt on Comey, whose testimony could cost Trump the presidency.
Plain old partisan politics, perhaps, but there\u2019s more.
President Trump has a two-faced view of Cuba. Although he made a campaign pledge to Bay of Pigs veterans in Miami that he would restore a hard-line approach to dealing with its government, his administration includes executives who eagerly embraced engagement and traveled to Cuba to explore business ventures.
Donald Trump, the citizen, also wanted to do business on the island.
Long before President Obama restored relations with Cuba in 2014, executives from the Trump organization visited Cuba to explore opening a luxury golf course, buying a hotel and erecting a Trump Tower in Havana. These excursions without Treasury Department approval, in violation of the U. S. embargo against Cuba, were well documented by Bloomberg Businessweek and Newsweek .
Despite the campaign promise, a reversal of Cuba policy wasn\u2019 t a sure thing. Trump\u2019s inauguration Cuba policy has been \u201cunder study, \u201d always a bridesmaid but never the bride to other policy priorities, as well as the president\u2019s mounting scandals. But during the controversial healthcare vote, the Trump administration began making political deals.
For Rubio, an ultra conservative who courted Florida\u2019s and the nation\u2019s tea party voters with zeal, up-ending one of President Obama\u2019s most significant legacy achievements in foreign affairs is a top priority \u2014 and personal.
When President Obama announced on Dec. 17,2014, that he was shedding 50 some years of failed Cuba policy \u2014 a historic moment embraced on both sides of the Florida Straits \u2014 the president did the unthinkable: He didn\u2019 t consult with Cuban Americans in Congress.
Rubio called it \u201ca new low\u201d and \u201ca slap in the face.\u201d
With Trump\u2019s troubles swept aside, Rubio gets the opportunity to slap back \u2014 and take his victory lap in his home turf of Miami.
Without Trump, the policy of engagement takes a backseat to the crisis in the nation\u2019s leadership, and if only by default, remains intact.
The former FBI director testified that Russia unequivocally was coming after the United States. He also said that the White House \u201clies, plain and simple.\u201d He made a case for the president to be investigated for obstruction of justice.
Trading the integrity of this country for a political shift on Cuba policy is disgraceful.<\/p>\n

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