White House press Secretary Josh Earnest opted not to identify how Fidel Castro’s dictatorial rule over Cuba was antithetical to American values when asked about President Barack Obama’s view of the late Cuban president’s legacy.
During Monday’s White House daily press briefing, Earnest spoke nebulously of Castro as a “towering figure” of the twentieth century:
“Well, I think that he obviously is a towering figure who had a profound impact on the history of not just his country but the Western Hemisphere. There certainly is no whitewashing the kinds of activities that he ordered, and that his government presided over that go against the very values that this country, that our country, has long defended. The president is, in terms of making policy, are going to be rooted in that past? Or are we going to look to the future? It doesn’t mean that we should ignore the past, but it does mean that we can’t let the past interfere with our ability to make progress.”
Watch the statement below:
Several times during the press briefing, Earnest described the foreign policy of previous administrations towards Cuba as one of “isolation” which did not yield positive results for either Cubans or Americans.
Rebuking criticisms of Obama’s approach towards “normalizing” relations with Cuba via concessions, Earnest said:
“I know that many of the president’s critics like to suggest that somehow the United States has made a bunch of concessions to the Cuban government. That’s wrong. It’s not a concession to allow Cuban-Americans to send more money to their family members who are living in Cuba. It’s not a concession to secure the release of Alan Gross, a USAID contractor that was wrongly detained in Cuba. It’s not a concession to open an embassy in Cuba. It’s not a concession to start daily flights between the United States and Cuba that makes it easier for Americans to visit Cuba. It’s not a concession to allow American cruise operators to stop in Cuba. It’s not a concession to allow American hotel operators to sign licensing agreements with resorts in Cuba. It’s not a concession to give American agricultural interests the opportunity to do more business in Cuba. All of those are things that have important benefits for the American people and are strongly supported by the Cuban people.”
Earnest’s response echoed Obama’s decision to not condemn with specificity the conduct of Castro that was in contravention of American values.
In his statement addressing Castro’s death, Obama spoke ambiguously of the “countless ways in which Fidel Castro altered to the course of individual lives, families, and of the Cuban nation.”
Deferring to “history” to “record and judge” Castro and his legacy, Obama opted against offering a moral evaluation of the matter.