Denied Prime Targets, Rubio Still Unloads at Cuba Hearing.
Washington was waiting for fireworks on Tuesday morning when Senator Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican who is an outspoken critic of President Obama’s Cuba policy, convened a hearing on United States-Cuba relations, and he did not disappoint.
Mr. Rubio, a son of Cuban immigrants who has called the president’s move to normalize relations with Cuba “disgraceful,’’ is furious that the administration did not send as witnesses the National Security Council advisers who negotiated a complicated prisoner swap that resulted in the freeing of a jailed American contractor, Alan P. Gross, and three Cuban spies.
Instead the chief witness was Roberta S. Jacobson, the assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs. After her grilling from Mr. Rubio, she might have been sorry she came.
“Were you involved in the negotiations?’’ Mr. Rubio demanded.
“I was not,’’ Ms. Jacobson replied.
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