CNN "The Lead with Jake Tapper" - Transcript: Alan Gross

Interview

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SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), FLORIDA: Thanks.

TAPPER: I know you're happy that Alan Gross is home and back with his family, but you say the president is making a mistake. What is the mistake?

RUBIO: The mistake has to do with the unilateral concessions to the Cuban government. Let's run through the list of it, full diplomatic relations. That means a recognition of the Cuban government's legitimacy. Opening up the banking sector, more telecommunications, higher remittances, a whole series of things that truly undermine the sanctions regime that is place against the Cuban government for being a tyranny.

So, in exchange for that, what do we get? Here's what the Cuban people get; 53 political prisoners are going to be set free, people that shouldn't even be in jail to begin with, but, remember, if they join up the cause of democracy, they will be right back in jail.

And the United Nations has agreed to more closely monitor conditions on the ground in Cuba.

TAPPER: OK.

RUBIO: And that's a terrible -- that's a terrible arrangement for democracy and the Cuban people.

TAPPER: Well, as President Obama says -- and it's a factual matter -- the embargo has been in place for more than a half-century, longer than either one of us has been alive, and the Castro regime is still in power. Why not try something new?

RUBIO: I agree we should try something new.

That's something we should be to -- be even more serious about imposing a cost on the Cuban government for being a tyranny. For example, last year, the Cuban government -- this has not been well- covered. The Cuban government last year helped North Korea try to evade U.N. sanctions.

They had a ship that left Havana with a bunch of banned material that was seized during the Panama Canal. The Cubans were helping North Korea evade U.N. sanctions. The United States government did nothing about that. And back in 1996, the Cuban government murdered American citizens that were flying over the straits of Florida, international waters...

TAPPER: Right.

RUBIO: ... trying to help rescue people. We have not indicted the people that have done that.

And as far as this argument that nothing's worked, I think people fundamentally misunderstand the purpose of these sanctions today. The purpose of the sanctions today, as opposed to back during the Cold War, is, it serves as leverage, so that you go to a Cuban government and you say, as the law already does, it's been codified, if you open up democratically, if you start to make real democratic progress in Cuba, the sanctions will go away.

That's real leverage, especially with a successor government to the Castro one, when new leadership takes over, which won't be long from now. All of that is virtually gone now, for the most part.

TAPPER: Right.

So -- but let me ask you, Senator. The White House press secretary today said that if there was an opportunity for the president to visit Cuba, he wouldn't turn it down. And I'm wondering what your response is to that.

RUBIO: Well, just think about what message does that send if you are a dissident on the island of Cuba.

Imagine, for example, the Ladies in White. This is a group of women who fight -- every Sunday go to mass dressed in white and afterward march down the street in silent protest, sometimes not silent protest, for the tyrannical nature of this regime.

They are summarily, systematically and regularly beaten, jailed. They're harassed during the week by the Cuban government. Imagine how they feel now to know that Barack Obama has fully embraced the Cuban government and would visit there, and as to further legitimize that.

What does that say for people who are fighting for freedom and liberty in Cuba and resisting the tyranny right now?

TAPPER: But what does it say that we have diplomatic relations with China?

RUBIO: I agree.

TAPPER: What does it say that we have diplomatic relations with Vietnam or with Saudi Arabia? Is the Cuban government worse than these other regimes that we have ties to?

RUBIO: That's a great point. No, that's a great point. And let me tell you the differences.

Number one, I agree. I was aghast that the president went to China earlier this year, and in order not to jeopardize his climate deal that he had signed with them said nothing about democracy protests in Hong Kong.

I was aghast that Hillary Clinton visited there last year and said they weren't going to let human rights get in the way of our relationship with China. I agree. And to go further, I would say the reality is that, at a certain level, there is a big difference between China and Cuba, in the sense that the reality is China is now by some estimates the largest economy in the world. They have ICBMs and nuclear weapons.

They're trying to dominate the Pacific region. There's a big difference between that and an island in the Caribbean of 13 million people. So, there are geopolitical realities that we have to deal with.

But Cuba is a place that we can make a real difference, a big-time difference. And I think that the fact that the president has done this without anything in return when it comes to democracy is terrible. TAPPER: All right, Senator Marco Rubio, thanks and happy holidays to you, sir.

RUBIO: Thank you. Happy holidays.

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