Marco Rubio: Jay-Z Needs to Get Informed on Cuba

Marco Rubio: Jay-Z Needs to Get Informed on Cuba
By Benjamin Bell
@benjaminbell
Apr 14, 2013 11:36am

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio this morning slammed Jay-Z over his recent trip
to Cuba, saying on "This Week" that the rapper needed to "get informed"
and that he missed an opportunity to meet the politically oppressed
people that live on the island nation south of Florida.

"I think Jay-Z needs to get informed. 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," Rubio said during an interview with ABC News' Chief White
House Correspondent Jonathan Karl.

"Secondly, I think 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 who is right now being oppressed and
persecuted and is undergoing a hunger strike because of his political
lyrics," Rubio added. "And I think he missed an opportunity. But that's
Jay-Z's issue."
abc marco rubio this week jt 130414 wblog Marco Rubio: Jay Z Needs to
Get Informed on Cuba

After returning from Cuba last week, Jay-Z produced a new rap entitled
"Open Letter," in which he criticized politicians for questioning his
trip with his wife Beyoncé to the communist nation. The trip was
authorized by the Treasury Department under a licensed program that
encourages "meaningful contacts" with the Cuban people.

RELATED: White House Dismisses Jay-Z Song

Rubio, who is of Cuban descent, criticized current U.S. travel policy to
the island, which he said was being running by a "tyrannical regime."

"The bigger point is the travel policies. The travel policies need to
be tightened because they are being abused," Rubio said. "These are
tourist trips, and they are – what they're doing is providing hard
currency and funding so that a tyrannical regime can maintain its grip
on the island of Cuba, and I think that's wrong."

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2013/04/marco-rubio-jay-z-needs-to-get-informed-on-cuba/