President Biden’s pick to lead the Health and Human Services Department, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, once refused to call for free elections in Cuba following a meeting with Cuban dictator Fidel Castro and then voted 10 years later to end the U.S. trade embargo against the country.
As a congressman in 1997, Becerra created controversy with his House Hispanic Caucus colleagues by taking a trip to Cuba to meet the communist dictator. Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Lincoln Diaz-Balart, two Republican members of the caucus Becerra chaired, said at the time that they were “personally insulted” by his four-day trip and resigned from the group until Becerra “demonstrates minimal respect for the rights of Cubans to be free and calls for free elections for that oppressed island.”
Becerra claimed at the time that he couldn’t call for free Cuban elections, saying it was an “issue that the caucus doesn’t take positions on.”
He later defended the four-day trip during an appearance on National Public Radio.
XAVIER BECERRA IS JUST AS TOXIC AND UNQUALIFIED AS NEERA TANDEN
“As an American citizen who has had the privilege now of being elected to Congress … I should be as educated as I can be on a number of issues,” Becerra said at the time.
He also slammed his colleagues’ decision to leave the caucus over his trip.
“I’m very disappointed that the two members decided to take this action. I consider them friends,” Becerra said. “And I know that they are very passionate about the issue. Certainly, it — the whole issue of Cuba is one that the caucus because there has not been a strong consensus, has decided not to take on. I — as the new chair of the caucus, it was not my intention to change that policy either. They chose, however, to make it an issue.”
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A decade later, Becerra backed an amendment from Rep. Charles Rangel that would have softened trade restrictions against Cuba, which would have made it easier to ship farm goods to Cuba. He backed an additional Rangel amendment that prohibited funding the trade embargo against the communist dictatorship.
A key group of centrist lawmakers, including Republican Sens. Susan Collins and Mitt Romney, as well as Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, have yet to indicate whether they will support Becerra’s nomination. The Biden nominee has faced questions from Senate Republicans on his liberal record and lack of experience in healthcare.
