Marco Rubio responds to Rand Paul Twitter fight over Cuba
WASHINGTON, Dec. 21 (UPI) -- Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., pushed back against Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., after a Twitter barrage criticizing Rubio's resistance to the president's new Cuba policy.
After President Obama announced his plan to normalize relations with Cuba, Rubio was one of the first Republicans to speak out against the plan, saying it would only feed the oppressive communist regime in the country.
Paul took to Twitter to criticize the opinion of his colleague and potential fellow 2016 presidential candidate, saying Rubio was taking the path of isolationism.
When asked about Paul's opinion and criticism, Rubio maintained his assertion and fired back against Paul.
"I disagree and he has the right to be a supporter of President Obama's foreign policy but I think it's premised on the same false notion that engagement alone leads to freedom. It doesn't," he told Bob Shieffer on Face the Nation.
Paul made the point this is not the first time the United States has engaged with a communist nation.
"I am opposed to changes like this that have no chance in leading to the result that we want which is more freedom and more liberty for the Cuban people. This change is entirely predicated upon the the false notion that engagement alone automatically leads to freedom and I think we have evidence that's not the case. Look at Vietnam. Look at China. Countries that we have engaged -- they are no more politically free today than when that engagement started," said Rubio.
The Florida senator recognized that while China has not changed despite normalized relations with the United States, it is geopolitically and economically impossible to pursue a policy of isolationism against China.
"Comparing China to Cuba is not really a comparable analogy because China is the second largest economy in the world, they have the third largest nuclear arsenal on the planet, they are the most populous nation on the planet so, obviously, from a geopolitical standpoint, our approach, by necessity, has to be different from a small, impoverished island of 13 million people,' he said.
Rubio, whose constituency includes many Cuban-Americans, some dissidents and defectors from the island, could be facing a new way of thinking in the formerly staunchly pro-embargo voting bloc.
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Marco Rubio responds to Rand Paul Twitter fight over Cuba