January 4th, 2015

Sen. Menendez: “very difficult to get an ambassador confirmed” for Cuba

Today on CNN’s State of the Union, ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Robert Menendez, joined Dana Bash to discuss US negotiations with Cuba and additional sanctions on North Korea.

TEXT HIGHLIGHTS

On establishing formal diplomatic relations with Cuba: “We already have an operating interests section, which the administration could easily convert to an embassy. An ambassador, I would think it would be very difficult to get an ambassador confirmed.”

​On the Obama Administration’s ‘secret diplomacy’: “And this is a problem not only as it relates to Cuba, but Iran, this secret diplomacy in which witnesses come before the committee and you ask them questions about what’s happening, whether it be about Iran or Cuba, and you don’t get a straight answer. And now you find out that there was in one case a year-and-a-half, in another case over a year of engagement. That’s going to be problematic for the administration as it appears before the committee again and again.”

​On North Korea’s sponsorship of state terror: “I really do believe that we need to look at putting North Korea back on the list of state sponsors of terrorism, which would have far more pervasive consequences.  You know, the one thing I disagree with — with the president on is when he characterized the action here against Sony by North Korea as an act of vandalism.”

On the Obama Administration’s deal with Cuba: “So we subverted, in my view, the standards that are important for us to uphold globally in a way that we could have — if you’re going to make a deal with the regime, then get something for it. But at the end of the day, they got absolutely nothing for giving up everything that the Castro regime wants to see and has lobbied for.”

 Full transcript.

TRANSCRIPT

THIS IS A RUSH FDCH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

BASH: The Obama administration is punishing North Korea for the cyber-attack against Sony, with economic sanctions targeting government leaders, including officials involved in the country’s arms trade.
With me now is Senator Robert Menendez, the outgoing chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee in the Senate.

Senator, let’s just start with — with that. Is sanctions, the kind that the U.S. has now put on in North Korea,is that enough?

SEN. ROBERT MENENDEZ (D), NEW JERSEY: Well, Dana, that’s a good first step. And those steps were envisioned in the North Korea Sanctions Enforcement Act that I introduced this past Congress.
But I think we need to go beyond. And I — as I wrote to Secretary Kerry, I really do believe that we need to look at putting North Korea back on the list of state sponsors of terrorism, which would have far more pervasive consequences.

You know, the one thing I disagree with — with the president on is when he characterized the action here against Sony by North Korea as an act of vandalism. Vandalism is when you break a window. Terrorism is when you destroy a building. And what happened here is that North Korea landed a virtual bomb on Sony’s parking lot, and ultimately had real consequences to it as a company and to many individuals who work there.

So I think there has to be a real consequence to this. Otherwise, you will see it happen again and again.

BASH: Have you heard back from the secretary of state about your request, demand to put North Korea back on the state sponsor of terrorism list?

MENENDEZ: I have not. And I look forward to engaging him when he appears before the committee in the new year.

BASH: I’m sure you do. Speaking of engaging, let’s turn to Cuba and the fact that the White House, the president announced just a couple of weeks ago the idea that they were going to expand for the first time in over 50 years relations with Cuba. These talks and this deal that was brokered was going on for more than a year.

You were the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. You are of Cuban descent. Were you engaged in these talks?

MENENDEZ: Oh, absolutely not. I knew nothing about them. And this is a problem not only as it relates to Cuba, but Iran, this secret diplomacy in which witnesses come before the committee and you ask them questions about what’s happening, whether it be about Iran or Cuba, and you don’t get a straight answer. And now you find out that there was in one case a year-and-a-half, in another case over a year of engagement.

That’s going to be problematic for the administration as it appears before the committee again and again.

BASH: And, I mean, what was your reaction? How furious were you when you found out about this yearlong push, secret push that included not just the president, but the pope, to get these — the detainee Alan Gross released, but also, more importantly, an agreement to open up relations?

MENENDEZ: Well, Dana, it’s less about me and whatever lack of information I was given, as someone who is both the chairman of the committee and one of a few Cuban-Americans in the Senate and on the Democratic side.

What it really is, is about the 10 million people in Cuba who got a bad deal, because what we did here is, we exchanged one innocent American for three convicted Cuban spies, including one that was convicted for conspiracy to commit murder against U.S. citizens, who were murdered by the Castro regime, and, secondly, we got nothing in terms of democracy and human rights. We got nothing about political freedoms.

As a matter of fact, on New Year’s Eve, Cuban activists and dissidents just simply wanted to hold in Revolution Square an opportunity for one minute for Cubans to come forward and speak about what they thought their country should be in the future. And those activists were arrested before they even got to the demonstration.

So, here you are, you know, a week or two after the president’s announcements, in which human rights activists and political dissidents are arrested for simply speaking about what their vision of Cuba should be tomorrow. We don’t know about any of the 53 dissidents that supposedly — political prisoners that were supposedly going to be released.

And we don’t know about this supposed person that we had as an asset, because I think the reason we haven’t heard about who that person really is, there’s speculation as to who he is, is that they overplayed his importance.

BASH: Senator, let me just stop you there, because I want our viewers to hear what the president said right here on this program to Candy Crowley about the reason he wants to change things vis-a-vis Cuba.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: For 50 years, we have tried to see if we can overthrow the regime through isolation. It hasn’t worked. If we engage, we have the opportunity to influence the course of events at a time when there’s going to be some generational change in that country. And I think we should seize it. And I intend to do so.
(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Senator, doesn’t he have a point? Can you sort of take aside your understandable history and personal view of Cuba and look at this country as a place that the U.S. does need to sort of get on with and that this is a 55-year-old policy that just hasn’t worked?

MENENDEZ: Well, a couple of points. Number one is, you know, we have had engagement with China over 50 years. We can’t talk about democracy and human rights being better in China. Same thing with Vietnam for nearly, what, 20 years now.

So, when we engage countries like that, we maybe have an economic interest, but we cannot hold them up as the standard of how we promote democracy and human rights. And, look, Cuba’s been engaged by Europe, Latin America, Canada for decades, and they haven’t created one iota of human rights and democracy.
So we subverted, in my view, the standards that are important for us to uphold globally in a way that we could have — if you’re going to make a deal with the regime, then get something for it. But at the end of the day, they got absolutely nothing for giving up everything that the Castro regime wants to see and has lobbied for.

BASH: Is the president just naive here, or is he, as you said, being secretive on this, just like he has been on Iran?

MENENDEZ: Well, look, I — both because of history and engagement over 22 years in the Congress, I understand that this — the Castro regime only changes out of economic necessity, not ideological change, so that it reduced its army, it accepted the American dollar, the most hated symbol in the revolution, it even accepted some degree of international investment, all which previously had been rejected by the regime, out of economic necessity.

So if you understand that economic necessity is the way in which the regime ultimately creates some change, then at a moment in which it was facing the great difficulties, because Venezuela, its patron, is about to no longer be its patron, it seems to me that what we did is throw an economic lifeline without getting any political or democracy opportunities.

BASH: One last question, real quick. This is now in your lap, in Congress’ lap. Do you see any scenario where the money for a new embassy in Cuba or an ambassador will actually get passed or confirmed?

MENENDEZ: Well, we already have an operating interests section, which the administration could easily convert to an embassy. An ambassador, I would think it would be very difficult to get an ambassador confirmed.

BASH: Senator Robert Menendez, thank you very much. Happy new year.

MENENDEZ: Thank you. Happy new year.

##END##