JUST IN: State Democrat Party Turns On Biden-Harris, Shreds Latest Move

In a sign of how bad the lay of the land has become for the Florida Democratic Party, some of its top state officials are ripping the Biden-Harris administration over its latest move to relax sanctions against a longtime foreign adversary.

Nikki Fried, the state party chair, couldn’t contain her disappointment about President Joe Biden’s decision to lift Cuba’s State Sponsors of Terrorism (SST) designation in exchange for freeing jailed political prisoners who protested the regime in 2021. The decision is causing heartburn among Florida Democrats already on the outs with Cuban-Americans who delivered President-elect Donald Trump a stunning victory in Miami-Dade County, the first time in decades that a Republican has carried the Miami-anchored region. “While any return of political prisoners from the clutches of Communist Cuba is cause for celebration, the regime’s treatment of the Cuban people continues to be one of the biggest human rights violations of the last century,” Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried said in a statement released Tuesday. “It would be naive to think that this negotiated exchange would signal a change in treatment for the Cuban people,” she added.

The change approved by Biden will renege a 2021 decision by the first Trump administration to add Cuba to the SST, with then Secretary of State Mike Pompeo saying at the time that Cuban President Raúl Castro uses his regime to “oppress its people at home, and countering its malign interference in Venezuela and the rest of the Western Hemisphere.” He added in a statement, “With this action, we will once again hold Cuba’s government accountable and send a clear message: the Castro regime must end its support for international terrorism and subversion of U.S. justice.” In a statement of its own, the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs welcomed Biden’s change but noted that the “blockade” of economic sanctions against the island is still in effect.

“Generations of Cuban-Americans in Florida have told stories about the cruelty of the Castro regime — currently led by Raul’s hand-picked successor — and the dangers they faced in escaping to freedom in America,” Fried said, adding, “We condemn in the strongest terms Cuba’s removal from this list, as well as any possible lifting of economic sanctions, and call on the Biden Administration to reverse course immediately.” The new designation is prompting obvious blowback from Republicans like Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), another Cuban-American who called the decision by President Biden “unacceptable on its merits” and said he is looking forward to “immediately reverse” it with the new administration, The Hill reports.

Biden is granting the clemency in the final week of his administration, and that is no accident, Cruz continued. “Obama-Biden officials are continuing their legacy of closing out administrations with rank appeasement of the Cuban regime. They push these policies both because they believe in them and to undermine the incoming Trump administration and Republican Congress,” Cruz said in a Tuesday statement to the outlet.