Sen. Marco Rubio to Jay-Z: Get your facts straight on Cuba (+video)
Immigration reform pushed by the bipartisan 'Gang of Eight' hits the Senate this week. Sen. Marco Rubio is a key player, and he was all over the news shows Sunday talking about that.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R) of Florida speaks at a Capitol Hill news conference on immigration legislation with other members of the 'Gang of Eight,' including, from left, Sen. John McCain (R) of Arizona, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D) of New York, and Sen. Robert Menendez (D) of New Jersey.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
Sen. Marco Rubio is a main Republican point man on immigration reform, not to mention trying to get Hispanics to vote GOP for a change. And he was all over the TV news shows Sunday – seven venues (two Spanish language) – which may be a record – touting the points he’ll make when legislation is taken up this coming week.
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But first he had a message for rapper Jay-Z, who went to Cuba recently on a trip with his wife, pop singer Beyoncé, that conservative critics saw as propaganda for a repressive country.
"If Jay-Z was truly interested in the true state of affairs in Cuba, he would have met people that are being oppressed, including a hip-hop artist in Cuba [jailed rapper Angel Yunier Remon Arzuaga] who is right now being oppressed and persecuted and is undergoing a hunger strike because of his political lyrics," Senator Rubio said on ABC's “This Week.”
"Jay-Z needs to get informed," Rubio said. "One of his heroes is Che Guevara. Che Guevara was a racist. Che Guevara was a racist that wrote extensively about the superiority of white Europeans over people of African descent, so he should inform himself on the guy that he’s propping up."
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But aside from Cuba – a minor issue in immigration reform but important to Floridians like Rubio, whose parents emigrated from there – Rubio’s stance and now outspokenness on immigration could be risky for him and the Republican Party.
“The gambit could pay off in spades by crowning a leading presidential contender in 2016, or it could permanently damage the Republican’s brand with conservatives,” writes Manu Raju at Politico.
Rubio is one of the bipartisan “Gang of Eight” senators who’ve taken the lead on immigration, but he has remained a bit of a wild card, pressured from both directions.
On Friday, the president of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement union called on Rubio to step down from the Gang of Eight, charging that proposed legislation “offers legalization, or amnesty, before enforcement.”
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