Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) said Sunday that rapper Jay-Z “needs to get informed” about Che Guevara and also criticized Jay-Z and Beyonce’s recent trip to Cuba on a visa from the U.S. Treasury.
“First of all, I think Jay-Z needs to get informed,” Rubio said on ABC’s “This Week.” “One of his heroes is Che Guevara. Che Guevara was a racist. Che Guevara was a racist that wrote extensively about the superiority of white Europeans over people of African descent, so he should inform himself on the guy that he’s propping up.”
Rubio continued: “Secondly, I think if Jay-Z was truly interested in the true state of affairs in Cuba, he would have met people that are being oppressed, including a hip-hop artist in Cuba who is right now being oppressed and persecuted and is undergoing a hunger strike because of his political lyrics. And I think he missed an opportunity. But that’s Jay-Z’s issue.”
Rubio also took issue with the travel visa that was issued to Jay-Z and Beyonce. “The travel policies need to be tightened because they are being abused,” he said. “These are tourist trips, and they are – what they’re doing is providing hard currency and funding so that a tyrannical regime can maintain its grip on the island of Cuba, and I think that’s wrong.”