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Proclamation by President Biden removing the designation of Cuba as a state sponsor of terror caused an uproar in Florida, especially among the president’s fellow Democrats.
The rare political unity in the Sunshine State came after Biden certified on Tuesday that the Miguel Diaz-Canel regime in Havana “has not provided any support for international terrorism” during the previous six-month period.
Biden’s statement also claimed that Havana provided Washington with assurances that it will not support terrorism in the future and that the US stands by its “core goal” of “more freedom and democracy” for the Cuban people.
However, Florida Democrats were up in arms over the development.
Broward County Rep. Jared Moskowitz, deep blue, he told Axios Tuesday that the outgoing president is doing lasting political damage.
“This is Joe Biden literally screwing up the Democratic Party in the state of Florida,” he said. “Very big.”
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Once the most notable “swing state,” full of “hanging chads” and the “Brooks Riot” of the 2000 election, Florida has seen a major swing to the right in recent years.
The state’s governor, Ron DeSantis, orchestrated an electoral blowout by Republican-turned-Democrat Charlie Crist in 2022, and President-elect Trump surprised the state by flipping Miami-Dade County red in 2024.
Trump lost Miami-Dade by 30 points in 2020, but won by 11 points in November. The county has a sizable Latino and specifically Cuban-American population, notable for its famous “Little Havana” neighborhood along U.S. Highway 41.
“Just as we’re trying to patch the hole in the boat, Biden is putting another hole in it,” Moskowitz told the network.
“Florida is a red state, and Biden just waved the white flag of surrender.”
Meanwhile, Florida Democratic Party Chairwoman Nikki Fried said she is “disappointed” by the decision.
“We condemn in the strongest terms the removal of Cuba from this list, as well as any possible lifting of economic sanctions, and call on the Biden Administration to reverse course immediately.”
Fried said in a statement that generations of Florida Cuban-Americans have shared stories of oppression by the Castro regime and that Diaz-Canel is the “hand-picked successor” to Raúl Castro as the first non-Castro to lead Cuba since Fulgencio Batista be overthrown by the Castro brothers in 1959.
After the terrorist-sponsored designation change, Havana officials pledged to release more than 500 political prisoners, for whom the Catholic Church had long been negotiating.
As the news fell right in front of the Cuban-Americans Sen. Marco Rubio’s confirmation hearing to be Trump’s secretary of state, a spokesman for Biden told Axios that the timing is strictly coincidental.
Rubio is one of several South Florida lawmakers and residents whose parents or grandparents fled the communist nation.
Rep. Carlos GimenezR-Fla. — the only Cuban-born member of Congress — called Biden a “pathetic coward” for his decision to drop the designation of Cuba’s sponsor of terror.
Giménez added that Rubio “will pulverize the (Castro/Diaz-Canel) regime once and for all.”
He told Fox News Digital that Biden’s decision is “morally bankrupt” and geopolitically “treacherous” for a malign regime that is less than 90 miles from the edge of the Monroe County border of his own congressional district .
Gimenez warned that the decision ignores Cuba’s coziness with the Chinese Communist Party and information sharing with Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro and Nicaraguan leader Daniel Ortega.
“The (Cuban) dictatorship must be confronted and isolated, never appeased.”
He praised Florida leaders on Biden’s side of the aisle for being willing to speak out at such an important time.
Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart, a Republican whose Miami-Dade district meets with Giménez, said he is “disgusted but not surprised” by what he called Biden’s “final acts of betrayal of the security interests of the United States United”.
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President Biden, left, on Tuesday withdrew Cuba’s state sponsor of terrorism designation, saying the regime of Miguel Díaz-Canel, right, “has not given any support to international terrorism” in the last six months.
As Moskowitz and other Democrats warn of the damage being done to the Democratic Party by moves like removing Cuba’s terrorist sponsor designation, several Florida Democrats have defected from the party and praised Trump in recent weeks.
Maureen Porras, the deputy mayor of Doral, Fla., the Miami suburb where Trump owns a golf club and resort, told The Floridian that her party now “prioritized minority views” and “he neglected … to address the real issues affecting our community.” .”
Meanwhile, state representatives Susan Valdes of Tampa and Hillary Cassel of Hallandale Beach, Fla., recently switched their affiliation from Democrat to Republican.
