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Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) joined Fox & Friends to discuss the ongoing protests in Cuba, Democrats’ unacceptable and misguided response to the evils of socialism, Twitter’s double standard, and more. See below for highlights and watch the full interview here.

On the historic protests in Cuba: 
 
“[The Cuban government] shut off the internet so we don’t know how many people are out there… we don’t know how many people have died, we don’t know how many people have been seriously injured, we don’t know how many people have been arrested. We know reports of hundreds of people that have vanished…
 
“Look, what’s happening there is horrifying, okay? It’s hard for people to believe it because it’s the kind of stuff you read about that happened 100 years ago, but not now. So [Cuban special forces] will go into people’s homes and say, ‘Where is your 16-year-old son, because he needs to join this armed mob that’s taking to the streets to beat people up.’ That’s what they are doing. They are literally barging into people’s homes.
 
“Yesterday, this independent journalist was doing an interview with a TV station from Spain and, as she’s on the air, state security comes in and arrests her. Another young man knows they are coming for him, goes and starts recording a video, and as he’s recording a video calling on the protesters to keep going you literally see the door behind him kicked open and state security officials barge in. We don’t know where he is today. 
 
“And why [is it] happening? Because communism doesn’t work. Because Marxism sucks. That’s why it’s happening. Because people are out there saying, ‘We don’t want to live under this oppressive regime. We can’t own a business. We can’t feed our family and go out and find a job on our own. We depend on the government for everything and they give us nothing. They build fancy hotels for tourists but they can’t fix crumbling homes; they blame everything on America. We don’t believe it anymore, and we’re tired of living in a place where the only place in the world where Cubans can’t succeed is Cuba. It’s the only place in the world where Cubans can’t succeed.” 
 
On the devastating effects of socialism: 
 
“You can talk about all the theories you want about socialism, but when you’ve lived it or you’re surrounded by people that lived it, you know what it means. And what it means is these people show up and they say, ‘The country is divided between a victim class and oppressor class’ — it begins to sound familiar, by the way. And they say, ‘You have to give us power so we can go after the oppressor class and…if you give us power, that means you’ll have less freedom. But don’t worry, we’ll provide you with all kinds of things to make you more secure.’ 
 
“And then, of course, they never provide those things and you don’t get freedom back, and then if you criticize them you’re a part of the oppressor class. And that’s the model they have followed everywhere in the world. It’s [been] playing out to horrific effect in Cuba for over 62 years, and people have had enough.”
 
On the threat of a mass migration from Cuba:
 
“Number one, I don’t want there to be a mass migration…and by the way, that’s what the Castro government has done in the past. In 1994 when they had some protests and in 1980 when they had some protests, what the Castro government did is they said, ‘Well you know what, if you guys don’t like it here why don’t you guys all leave? We’ll open it up for you guys to take to the sea.’ Or they threaten the administration and say to them, ‘Look, unless you lift the embargo it’s inevitable, people are going to come and they’re going to have a mass migration.’ They use it as a weapon. 
 
“And I think it’s important — I’ve already asked the Biden Administration to do this, and that is [to] be very clear with the Cuban government: if you trigger a mass migration, we will consider it a hostility, an act of war, [and] we will respond accordingly. 
 
On the Democrats’ response to Cuba: 
 
“Here’s the bottom line: this administration’s response has been lame. It’s been lame on this whole issue. I wish they…had half the passion that they have for going after Republican state legislatures and Republican members of Congress… [as] they do against the tyranny in Cuba. Just half. Not all of it, just half. 
 
“And right now we don’t have it. And the reason why is because the person running Cuba policy for this administration is a supporter of engagement with the Castro regime. She has personally coordinated a bunch of visits to Cuba for members of Congress and ultimately she’s even been hailed in official state media in Cuba in the past as an enlightened figure.”
 
…
 
“[President Biden] has entire elements of his party that would come out against him if he did something strong on Cuba… These guys talk about, ‘Diplomacy is back, America is back.’ Great, do me a favor — convene the United Nations Security Council, convene the Organization of American States. Use your diplomatic heft, the fact that ‘America is back,’ and go to all these countries and say, ‘Okay guys, we have a massacre about to happen 90 miles from our shores. We want the international community to condemn it, to isolate, and to be prepared to take action.’ 
 
“Because [it’s] one thing to have a blood bath half a word away — [that’s] terrible, it’s horrifying. This is a blood bath 90 miles off of our shores — it’s destabilizing, and I want to know what Joe Biden is going to do when a thousand special forces from Russia arrive on Cuban territory to help the Cuban regime. Because that’s what’s coming next.”
 
…
 
“[President Biden has] people in his party — and I mean grassroots supporters, the activist base of that party, all those small dollars — how do you think these people raise eight, nine, ten million dollars a week online if you just announced you’re running for something against a Republican? They raise it from a radical left wing base. 
 
“There is a radical, left wing, Marxist element in the Democratic party. I’m not saying it’s a majority of the voters in the Democratic party; I don’t know what percentage it is. But I can tell you it is a large percentage of people who knock on doors and donate small dollars and dictate policy. That I can tell you.” 
 
On the double standard Twitter uses to block politicians from its platform:  
 
“First of all, I’m not in favor of Twitter banning anybody. I want to hear what people have to say so we can respond to them. But if they are going to do it, if they are going to take a President of the United States and say, ‘We’re suspending you forever,’ if they’re going to go after American politicians and block their tweets, censor their tweets, and even deny them access to these platforms, then you have to do it to a brutal dictator who is on Twitter, along with other members of the regime, basically inciting people to take to the streets and attack, and maim, and hurt, and kill their fellow countrymen. 
 
“That’s inciting civil war in Cuba, and [Twitter has] done nothing. Do you know why they’ve done nothing? Because they’re hypocrites. If that was a right wing strong man doing that they would probably ban their account.”