00:00We remain, here's the problem we have, we'll engage with the Cubans, we have our
00:04ambassadors met with them recently, the CIA director was down there a few weeks
00:07ago, there's some State Department communications that occur. I just don't
00:11see a lot of, at the end of the day they got to make a decision. Their system
00:15doesn't work, right? Their economic system does not work, it's broken and you
00:19can't fix it with the current political system that's in place. They just don't
00:22comprehend how to do it and it's a failed state. Like their economy and the
00:26model they're trying to follow in Cuba doesn't resemble what anyone is doing
00:29anywhere in the world. I mean there are other ways to do it that can provide the
00:33people of Cuba prosperity and opportunity and it's what I said in the video to them
00:37the other day. You look at Cuba in the Bahamas, in Jamaica, in the Dominican
00:41Republic, here in Florida. Cuba's surrounded by places where people have the right to
00:45do things like own a business, work for themselves, and be able to vote and for
00:50the leaders that govern them and or replace them. So if that's possible all
00:54around Cuba, why is it impossible? Why is that not possible inside of Cuba? And right
00:59now there just doesn't seem to be people over there in charge of the regime who
01:03are in any way open to any of those changes and the things they talk about
01:06economically are cosmetic in nature. They're not real because that's what
01:09they've gotten used to all these years is just buying time and waiting us out.
01:12They're not going to be able to wait us out or buy time. We're very serious, we're
01:15very focused. As I told you a moment ago in the context of Iran, the president's
01:20preference is always a negotiated agreement that's peaceful. That's always our
01:24preference that remains our preference. With Cuba, I'm just being honest with you, you know, the
01:28likelihood of that happening given who we're dealing with right now is not high.
01:32But if they have a change of heart, you know, we're here and in the meantime we'll
01:35keep doing what we need to do. It sounds a lot like nation-building and the
01:38administration doesn't believe in using force for nation-building.
01:40No, it's not nation-building. It's not nation-building. We are addressing
01:44something that's directly related to the national security of the United States. We are
01:47involved in places all over the world. You're asking me about Ebola.
01:50Important. But Ebola is in Africa. Cuba is 90 miles from our shores. So if you have a
01:55systemic meltdown in that country, which is where they're headed. Their power plants,
01:58by the way, the reason why their power plants break down, they've been having
02:02blackouts for years. They had major blackouts last year and they were still
02:06getting free Venezuelan oil. They haven't spent a penny in fixing their energy
02:11production, their electrical grid. They don't spend any money on that stuff. They pocket.
02:16They have a private military company named Gaisa who's sitting on $18 billion of assets. And not a
02:22penny of that transfers over to the state budget. Not a penny of that goes over to help the people
02:26of
02:26Cuba. Not one cent. So even if they had all the diesel in the world, they still wouldn't be able
02:32to
02:32generate energy because they've stolen the money and haven't invested in their energy infrastructure.
02:36So you're heading for a failed state. That's what you have now. But it's 90 miles from our shores.
02:40So we'll be impacted by the migratory crisis, by any violence and instability that happens there.
02:46It directly implicates the United States national interest. So the future of Cuba belongs to the
02:51people of Cuba in terms of how they're governed, what the system looks like and so forth. But the
02:55national security threat, that's 100% something we're going to focus on because that's about America.
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