Hillary Clinton Calls on Congress to Lift Cuba Embargo

Posted on August 1, 2015

Hillary Clinton is calling for an end to the 50-year Cuba embargo. She is backing the improved diplomatic relations between U.S. and Cuba started recently under the Obama administration.

Clinton called on Congress to lift the embargo in her speech Friday. She said in her speech, "We have come to a decisive moment. The Cuban people have waited enough."

She also said, "The Cuba embargo needs to go, once and for all. If we go backward no one will benefit more than the hardliners in Havana. In fact, there may no stronger argument for engagement than the fact that Cuba's hardliners are so opposed to it. Engagement is not a gift to Castros, it's a threat to the Castros."

Clinton says in her book, Hard Choices, that she recommended to President Obama that he take another look at the embargo. She wrote in Hard Choices, "After twenty years of observing and dealing with the U.S.-Cuba relationship, I thought we should shift the onus onto the Castros to explain why they remained undemocratic and abusive."

Hillary also says most Republican candidates still view Cuba through a "outdated Cold War lense." Take a look: