Hillary Clinton’s campaign hopes Donald Trump’s alleged flouting of the Cuban trade embargo will help tip the balance in battleground Florida.
The Democratic presidential nominee’s campaign will begin airing a radio ad Monday in the Sunshine State that argues there are two Trumps: One who “disingenuously condemns the human rights abuses committed by the Castros” and another who “improperly explored business dealings with the very Communist regime he publicly decries.”
Newsweek reported last week that Trump sought to invest in Cuba in the late 1990s. Trump Hotel executives, according to the report, visited the communist-run island in 1998 to meet with officials there about doing business.
“He said it himself,” a narrator says before Trump’s voice says, “Perhaps there are two Donald Trump’s.”
The narrator continues: “Now we know that there are. One Donald comes to sip cafecito Cubano and talk about the human rights abuses of Castro’s communist regime. The other Donald thinks because of his money and his businesses that he is above the law.”
The ad — which will air only in Florida — will run in English and Spanish. Nearly 70% of Cuban Americans live in Florida, according to the 2010 census, and the community, which is traditionally more conservative than most Hispanic voters, could tip the balance in the battleground state.
“Florida’s Cuban American community can see through Trump’s two faces,” read a statement on the new ad. “While their parents and grandparents were fighting the Castro regime — both on and off the island — Trump was looking to line his pockets, and even worse, those of the Castro brothers.”
Clinton argued last week that the Newsweek report shows Trump picking business over country.
“We have laws in our country and the efforts that Trump is making to get into the Cuban market, putting his business interests ahead of the laws of the Untied States and the requirements that the businesses were operating under because of the sanctions shows that he puts his personal and business interests head of the laws and the values and the policies of the United States of America,” Clinton told reporters.
Trump’s campaign responded in a statement denying any wrongdoing by the real estate mogul and saying the attack was based on “manufactured reports are from a totally discredited reporter.”
“Mr. Trump has never been to Cuba or did business in Cuba, as he has always respected the embargo and been very critical of Castro. This is all coming from the Clinton Spin Machine and their patsies in the media,” the campaign said.
President Barack Obama has taken steps to lighten the restrictions on Cuba throughout this presidency and Clinton said, as president, that she would continue that softening.