Rand Paul: Trade with Cuba ‘probably a good idea’

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul said Thursday that starting to trade with Cuba “is probably a good idea” and that the lengthy economic embargo against the communist island “just hasn’t worked.”

Paul became the first potential Republican presidential candidate to offer some support for President Barack Obama’s decision to try to normalize U.S. relations with Cuba. The president’s surprise announcement on Wednesday was slammed by several potential GOP candidates, including former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who said it amounted to appeasing the Castro regime.

Paul said in a radio interview with Tom Roten of News Talk 800 WVHU in Huntington, West Virginia, that many younger Cuban Americans support opening up trade with Cuba. He also said many U.S. farmers would back Obama’s moves because the country is a new market for their crops.

“The 50-year embargo just hasn’t worked,” Paul said. “If the goal is regime change, it sure doesn’t seem to be working and probably it punishes the people more than the regime because the regime can blame the embargo for hardship.

“In the end, I think opening up Cuba is probably a good idea,” he said.

Paul’s comments parallel those of Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton, who wrote in her book, “Hard Choices,” that the embargo was a failure that gave the Castro regime “a foil to blame for Cuba’s economic woes.”

Obama said Wednesday he would ease economic and travel restrictions on Cuba and attempt to partner with Congress to end the trade embargo. His announcement came after Cuba released American Alan Gross, who had been imprisoned for five years, and a Cuban who had spied for the U.S. In exchange, the U.S. freed three Cubans jailed in Florida.

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This story was originally published December 18, 2014 at 9:04 AM.