Newsmax host Rob Finnerty on Wednesday questioned Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) over speculation that the Trump administration could attack Cuba after a recent Axios report about the threat of a drone strike.
“And I’ll be honest ... to me, this just sounds like we’re trying to make the case to attack Cuba. I don’t buy it. It sounds like a false flag operation,” said Finnerty in his interview with the MAGA-friendly chair of the House Oversight Committee. “Would you support military action in Cuba if it came to that?”
Finnerty’s “honest” on-air assessment came hours after Cuba’s former President Raúl Castro was indicted over a 1996 downing of planes operated by Miami-based exiles. The charges ramped up speculation that Cuba — squeezed by a U.S. oil blockade in recent months that’s sparked blackouts, food shortages and economic woes — could follow Venezuela and Iran as the target of military strikes directed by President Donald Trump.
Trump himself has floated a “friendly takeover” of Cuba, and per an unnamed U.S. official in comments to Politico, the administration has military action “on the table in a way that it wasn’t before” despite efforts to “scare the Cubans” through attacks in Venezuela and Iran.
Earlier in the interview, Finnerty asked Comer about “this Cuba thing,” pointing to Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s urging the Cuban people in Spanish on Wednesday to embrace a “new chapter” in their relationship with the U.S. “I get it. The ayatollah is gone. Nicolás Maduro is in jail. ... Look, I think people struggle with how this is America first when gas is $4.55 a gallon right now,” Finnerty said.
Comer told Finnerty that Cuba has always been a national security threat, and since Cubans “clearly want a regime change,” the country’s proximity to the U.S. presents a “strategic problem.” Finnerty chimed back in, “Do you really think that Cuba’s a threat?”
Comer responded with a big “if.” “Well, if some country went in and loaded Cuba with the same drones that Iran had when we first started bombing Iran, then, yes, I think it could be a threat. I don’t think that’s there,” claimed Comer, adding that he doesn’t think military action is in the cards and hopes matters can “turn diplomatically.”
