Ileana Ros-Lehtinen Slams Obama for Meeting With Raul Castro

With reports emerging in recent days that President Barack Obama will meet with Cuban strongman Raul Castro at the United Nations on Tuesday, a prominent Florida Republican slammed the White House for “appeasing tyrants.”

On Sunday, U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., ripped into Obama for scheduling the meeting. 

 "Meeting with and appeasing tyrants has become an obsession for the Obama administration but no amount of meetings will change the reality in Cuba: Raul Castro has not unclenched his fist and his regime continues to be as repressive today than it was when President Obama began this misguided normalization process,” Ros-Lehtinen said. “Further legitimizing Castro and his communist regime only serves to undermine the cause of freedom for the Cuban people.

“Obama's latest concession to Castro is possibly abstaining from the embargo vote,” Ros-Lehtinen added. “I recently spoke with US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power and urged her to vote against the resolution. While pro-democracy leaders in all parts of Cuba continue to be arrested and El Sexto, an artist languishing in the dictatorship’s gulags, is conducting a hunger strike, President Obama sees fit to shake the bloodied hand of one of the world's most ruthless dictators. It is truly shameful that instead of championing the cause of everyday Cubans, the White House has chosen to sell out to the dictatorship yet again.”