Maybe Marco Rubio doesn\u2019t know any better.<\/p>\n
But ignorance isn\u2019t the only reason why Florida\u2019s senior senator would indignantly compare Donald Trump\u2019s criminal conviction to a show trial in Cuba. It\u2019s merely the kindest.<\/p>\n
This University of Miami School of Law graduate must surely have missed classes explaining that in an American court, Trump must prove the truth of what he says. A Cuban court would have spared him the burden and put words in his mouth.<\/p>\n
In Manhattan criminal court, Trump got the best lawyer his millions could buy. In a criminal trial in Cuba, he would have been stuck with whichever state lawyer pulled the short straw.<\/p>\n
Here, Trump had the right to testify in his own defense. There, he would have had the right to explain why he committed the crime.<\/p>\n
Rubio hammered home his argument that there\u2019s no daylight between Cuba\u2019s lack of justice and Trump\u2019s own trial, with a video<\/a> featuring a military official manacled and brought before a crowd of more than 15,000 in the Havana Sports Palace arena. Thirteen hours of screamed jeers and accusations ended at dawn with a judgment of death<\/a>.<\/p>\n In America, Trump complained<\/a> about the courtroom\u2019s air conditioning. He was allowed to call his own trial \u201crigged,\u201d the judge \u201ccorrupt\u201d and the verdict \u201ca disgrace.\u201d<\/p>\n Try getting away with that in Havana.<\/p>\n In Cuba, there is no jury of peers in a criminal trial. And although the former president appears to doubt he has peers anywhere, he does, and they judged him \u2014 not a state tribunal.<\/p>\n Still, some people will believe Rubio. They might think that the son of Cuban immigrants is speaking from experience. He\u2019s not. He\u2019s speaking from an ambition so humiliatingly raw that a person could be embarrassed for him.<\/p>\n Rubio exploited the memory of thousands who lost their freedom to Cuban justice to score political points.<\/p>\n But the man he is defending, Trump, is the man he hopes will anoint him as his vice presidential running mate.<\/p>\n In Cuba, Trump\u2019s stated goals for American justice fit right in.<\/p>\n Trump endorsed<\/a> the termination of the U.S. Constitution if it would put him back in power. Havana\u2019s latest 2019 constitution ensures that those who are in power stay in power.<\/p>\n Cuba executes drug users. Trump seeks to execute<\/a> drug dealers.<\/p>\n Cuba locks up its political enemies. Trump has been calling for that<\/a> since 2016.<\/p>\n Cuba sent in<\/a> military and national police to break up protests over the economy.<\/p>\n Trump sent in the National Guard to break up Washington D.C. protests over George Floyd. If states did not do the same, he told governors<\/a>, he would send in the military.<\/p>\n Police tear-gassed<\/a> peaceful demonstrators in Cuba.<\/p>\n Police tear-gassed<\/a> peaceful demonstrators to allow Trump to walk to a church for a photo-op.<\/p>\n Cuba sentenced 171 protestors to an average of 10 years and two months in prison.<\/p>\n Trump has called for U.S. protestors to be imprisoned for 10 years.<\/p>\n This years-long fire hose of daily outrages from Trump and his lackeys makes it hard to pause and remember the inflammatory pledges are not jokes over beers or a little something to gin up a rally.<\/p>\n Trump has always done, or tried to do, exactly what he says he wants to do.<\/p>\n And he is saying he wants the American justice system dismantled from the ground up to better serve him.<\/p>\n He\u2019s shrewd enough to distance himself from the most noxious of the anti-democratic specifics. The Heritage Foundation\u2019s Project 2025<\/a>, for instance, has not been openly endorsed by the Trump campaign.<\/p>\n But to a man who said he will be a dictator \u2014 for just one day, though \u2014 Project 2025\u2019s plans for the American justice system are catnip.<\/p>\n As in Cuba, law enforcement under Project 2025 would be subordinate to one man. Every federal prosecution and investigation would have to reflect the president\u2019s policy goals, or they could be stopped.<\/p>\n That, though, is not the mockery of America\u2019s justice system Rubio wants us to focus on.<\/p>\n \u201cA travesty,\u201d he said<\/a> after Trump\u2019s convictions. \u201cAn ugly, ugly blemish.\u201d And to his followers on X: \u201cGet even.\u201d<\/p>\n All this venom from the senator for convictions that may not even stand.<\/p>\n Trump is appealing, and he might win. That\u2019s because, at least for the time being, America remains a nation of laws, and not men.<\/p>\n Another reason Trump might win is because this is still America \u2014 not Cuba.<\/p>\n ____<\/p>\n The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Opinion Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Opinion Editor Dan Sweeney, editorial writer Martin Dyckman and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson. Editorials are the opinion of the Board and written by one of its members or a designee. To contact us, email at<\/em><\/strong> letters@sun-sentinel.com<\/em><\/strong><\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n ___<\/p>\nConsumed by ambition<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Cuba and Trump\u2019s America<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Listen to Trump\u2019s words<\/strong><\/h3>\n