Paul Ryan promised to be “tough” on Cuba at a campaign rally in Miami in an effort to appeal to Cuban-American voters, reports ABC News. Joined at a Cuban restaurant by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Mitt Romney’s son Craig, Ryan criticized President Obama’s relationship with Cuba and promised a new approach. “Let me tell you this, in a Mitt Romney administration we will not keep practicing this policy of appeasement, we will be tough on this brutal dictator, all it has done is reward more despotism … and we will help those pro-democracy groups,” Ryan said.
Jen Psaki, traveling press secretary for the Obama campaign, mentioned Obama’s policies to allow Cuban-Americans to visit their families in Cuba in response to Ryan’s remarks, according to a White House pool report. “Keeping these families apart would do nothing to weaken the Castro regime,” Psaki said. “That’s what the Romney-Ryan ticket wants to do, they need to explain to the hundreds of thousands of Cuban Americans who’ve been reunited with their families why they want to keep them apart.”