U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says the Republican majority is unlikely to confirm an ambassador to Cuba.
The United States and Cuba announced Wednesday they would reopen embassies in each other's countries as they move toward restoring full diplomatic relations after more than 50 years of hostility. But in a speech to a local chamber of commerce in Kentucky Thursday, McConnell called Cuba a thuggish regime that has become a haven for criminals fleeing prosecution in the United States.
"It is a police state that's mired in the 50s and 60s," the Republican leader told the audience. "If you've seen any film of down there, they're still driving cars that are in a museum here."
McConnell says Senate Republicans would resist any legislation offering to lift restrictions on Cuba, which has been advocated by Democratic President Barack Obama. The administration has argued the half-century long diplomatic policy is a failed relic of the Cold War.
"There have been very real, profound differences between our governments and sometimes we allow ourselves to be trapped by a certain way of doing things," Obama said in a Rose Garden address Wednesday. "For the United States that meant clinging to a policy that was not working."
Meanwhile, McConnell says he has seen no evidence that normalizing relations with Cuba has changed the country's behavior toward the United States.
