Senators Marco Rubio and Chris Van Hollen participate in a congressional hearing, discussing key legislative issues with fellow committee members in attendance.

Senators Marco Rubio and Chris Van Hollen participate in a congressional hearing, discussing key legislative issues with fellow committee members in attendance.

Democrat Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) — the same guy The Gateway Pundit previously reported on for flying to El Salvador last year for a humiliating photo op, where he was caught sipping margaritas with a MS-13 gang member and deported criminal (Bukele’s team even posted the evidence and dubbed it “Margaritagate”) — tried to lecture Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday about Cuba’s status as a state sponsor of terrorism.

During a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on the State Department budget, Van Hollen trotted out the tired Biden-era talking points: the previous administration did a “thorough review with the intelligence community” and found no evidence Cuba was engaged in ongoing state-sponsored terrorism.

He demanded to know if Rubio and the Trump administration had found “new evidence” to justify reinstating the designation in the first week of the administration — and referencing statements in a January 26th executive order about connections to Hezbollah and Hamas.

Van Hollen: “And in that regard, Mr. Secretary, I have a question for you regarding the designation of Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism. On the very first week, at least, of this administration, you reinstated— the administration reinstated that.

And in a recent January 26th EO, you made statements suggesting connections to Hezbollah and Hamas. The previous administration did a thorough review with the intelligence community and concluded that there was no evidence that Cuba was engaged in ongoing state sponsor of terrorism. Did you find new evidence to support that conclusion?”

Rubio wasn’t playing along with the Democrat script.

Rubio: “Well, first of all, let me just say that was— that’s your question, but you made this long statement of which I disagree with most of it. We won’t have time to address every point that you made, so let’s stick to Cuba specific because that’s the question that you asked. Cuba has sponsored terrorism and supported groups.

For example, virtually every left-wing radical violent terrorist group in the Western Hemisphere has at some point relied on support from Cuba. The ELN, the FARC, the FARC dissidents including them have been involved there. We also know, for example, that Cuba continues to host a pretty substantial collection— intelligence sites on behalf of the Chinese and the Russians. But you look at the region and you look at all of these leftist Marxist terrorist organizations, all of them.”

Van Hollen, clearly not getting the softball answer he wanted, tried to move on.

Van Hollen: “Mr. Secretary, if I can move on, I noticed you did not answer my question.”

Classic Van Hollen. He didn’t want the receipts. He wanted to protect the communist regime in Havana while pretending the Trump administration is making it all up.

This is the same Democrat who rushed to El Salvador to coddle an alleged MS-13 gang member and human smuggler — the same politician who got mocked worldwide for the margarita photos and then claimed it was all a setup. Now he’s out here running defense for Cuba, a regime that has spent decades arming, training, and sheltering Marxist terrorists who murder, kidnap, and traffic drugs across Latin America.

Rubio — whose parents immigrated to the U.S. from Cuba in 1956, who actually understands the threat 90 miles from American shores — didn’t flinch.

He laid out the cold, hard history: Cuba’s fingerprints are all over the FARC and ELN’s reign of terror in Colombia. The same Cuba that hosts Russian and Chinese intelligence facilities aimed squarely at the United States.

The same Cuba that the Biden administration tried to whitewash while Americans paid the price for open borders and weak foreign policy.

WATCH:

The post Rubio Claps Back Hard With Facts After Senator Chris Van Hollen — The Guy Who Grabs Margs With MS-13 Gang Member — Says “There Is No Evidence That Cuba Is Engaged In State-Sponsored Terrorism” appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.