Yesterday, we wrote about a pair of Republican congressmen who were attempting to look into a possibly illegal trip that Beyoncé and Jay-Z took to Cuba to celebrate their wedding anniversary, which the Treasury Department authorized—a move that received some scrutiny since visiting is usually barred except for religious, cultural and academic reasons. ”Why shouldn’t pop culture’s royal couple be allowed to do whatever they want?” you might ask.
Well, Senator Marco Rubio doesn’t see it that way. Today, he called upon the Obama administration to explain why they’d approved such a thing. “U.S. law clearly bans tourism to Cuba by American citizens because it provides money to a cruel, repressive and murderous regime,” Rubio said in a statement. “Since their inception, the Obama administration’s ‘people to people’ cultural exchange programs have been abused by tourists who have no interest in the Cuban people’s freedom and either don’t realize or don’t care that they’re essentially funding the regime’s systematic trampling of people’s human rights.”
Apart from the goofiness of Bey and Jay being used as fodder in a legitimate political war, there’s another angle to consider. Rubio is perhaps the Republican Party’s best and only shot to reach the youth/minority/cool dude demographic they’ve increasingly farted at over the last few presidential elections, so someone should clue him in: The youngs will not suffer a politician who dares to speak ill of Beyoncé. It’s Tumblr and Twitter-driven logic, but today’s teenagers are tomorrow’s voters—and all the DNC will have to do is spread an image macro of Rubio crying with a caption that reads “HE DARED TO DOUBT QUEEN BEY” come the 2016 election to remind everyone where he stood on America’s most crucial issue. As of post time, President Obama had yet to respond to Rubio’s questioning.
How many Cuban Cigars did Jay-Z Smoke and Bring back for his buddy Barack Obama???
