White House says it will not tolerate Cuba efforts to influence U.S. elections

Florida lawmakers are calling on the Biden administration to condemn the Cuban government after the U.S. intelligence community said Monday that Havana attempted to influence the 2022 midterm elections.

A report released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said that Cuban officials worked to build relationships with members of the American media sympathetic to Havana, and that a network of social media accounts likely tied to Cuban intelligence “amplified derogatory content” on U.S. politicians in Florida who are hostile to the Cuban government.

A White House official referred a reporter to the intelligence community for comment on the report and to the State Department and Treasury Department on whether the U.S. plans any retaliatory response to Cuba’s election meddling.

But Florida politicians said the Biden administration should do more to respond to a threat they view as pernicious and ongoing.

“It should not be a surprise to anyone that the Cuban regime attempted to influence the 2022 midterm elections, though such ‘participation’ in our democratic process is particularly ironic given the regime’s disdain for any semblance of democracy at home,” Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida told McClatchy in a statement. “The Biden administration must immediately condemn these actions, make clear they will not be tolerated, and expel Cuban diplomats from U.S. soil. Continued failure to treat Cuba like the tyrannical spying regime that it is only emboldens it.”

Read the report

Rep. María Elvira Salazar, R-Miami, told McClatchy that “this blatant interference in American elections must not be permitted and must be met by an immediate response from the United States government.”

“The Cuban regime seeks to topple their enemies and plant their allies and agents in positions of power in the United States,” said Salazar. “South Florida politicians who oppose the regime are being attacked through the communist propaganda their mouthpieces spread.”

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Adrienne Watson, an NSC spokesperson, said the Biden administration is “committed to a whole-of-government approach to ensuring the security and integrity of our nation’s elections.”

“The United States does not tolerate foreign malign influence or interference of any kind,” Watson said in a statement.

While the declassified portion of the intelligence assessment does not name any specific individuals who were targeted, it states that Cuba “attempted to undermine the electoral prospects of specific U.S. congressional and gubernatorial politicians that it viewed as hostile.”

Much of the report’s section on Cuba’s activities are redacted. The assessment also does not say how effective Havana’s influence campaign was on Florida’s elections.

On Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Carlos Gimenez said during a press conference in Doral that he believes he, Salazar and Miami’s other Republican congressman, Mario Diaz-Balart, were targeted, though he said he had not been told that directly. All three are Cuban Americans.

“They redacted a whole bunch but you can infer from what you can see who exactly it was that they were talking about,” he said.

Asked if they had any information about who was targeted, Andrea Morales, press secretary for Diaz-Balart, said they had not been informed by the Director of National Intelligence, “but we have always known they do this stuff.”

“If we knew, we can’t release classified info,” she said. “The regime is effective in their anti-US espionage and covert activities, and very dangerous.”

Miami Herald staff writer Syra Ortiz Blanes contributed to this report.