Republicans tear into 'ridiculous' State Department tweet tying COVID to the Cuba protests and accuse the Biden administration of 'playing cover for communists'

 Republicans mocked a tweet from a State Department official who tied Sunday's Cuban protests with the country's rise in COVID-19 cases. 

Julie Chung, the acting assistant secretary of the department's Buruea of Western Hemisphere Affairs tweeted Sunday, 'Peaceful protests are growing in Cuba as the Cuban people exercise their right to peaceful assembly to express concern about rising COVID cases/deaths & medicine shortage.' 

'We commend the numerous efforts of the Cuban people mobilizing donations to help neighbors,' she added.   

Sen. Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican, then tweeted, 'This is a ridiculous tweet from @StateDept.' 

'People in #Cuba are protesting 62 years of socialism, lies, tyranny & misery not "expressing concern about rising COVID cases/deaths,"' he wrote. 'Why is it so hard for @potus & the people in this administration to say that.' 

Rep. Dan Crenshaw, a Texas Republican, also hammered the tweet. 

'No they’re chanting LIBERTAD. Stop playing cover for communists and support the Cuban people. My god. Why is that so hard for you,' Crenshaw wrote. 

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Republicans reacted negatively to a tweet from Julie Chung, the acting assistant secretary of the department's Buruea of Western Hemisphere Affairs, who linked the protests in Cuban to the rise in COVID-19 cases in the country 

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Sen. Marco Rubio hammered Julie Chung's tweet calling it 'ridiculous' and saying the Cuban people were actually protesting '62 years of socialism, lies, tyranny & misery' 

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Rep. Dan Crenshaw, a Texas Republican, reacted to Chung's tweet by saying, 'Stop playing cover for communists and support the Cuban people. My god. Why is that so hard for you' 

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Press secretary Jen Psaki defended Chung's tweet from the podium Monday saying that the Cuban people could be discontent about a number of things including 'economic suppression, media suppression, lack of access to health and medical supplies, including vaccines' 

When asked about Chung's tweet at Monday's White House press briefing, press secretary Jen Psaki pointed out first that the protests 'were just happening yesterday.' 

'We're still assessing what is motivating and of course is driving all these individuals who came to the streets,' she said. 

Psaki said that the way the Cuban people are governed they could be discontent about a number of things including 'economic suppression, media suppression, lack of access to health and medical supplies, including vaccines - there are a range of reasons and voices we're hearing from people on the ground who are protesting.' 

Fox News' Peter Doocy pointed out that most of the protesters are 'yelling freedom' and again asked how that could be interpreted as a demonstration against rising COVID cases.  

'Again I would say that when people are out there in the streets protesting and complaining about the lack of access to economic prosperity, to the medical supplies that they need, to a life they deserve to live - that can take on a range of meanings,' Psaki said. 'There's a global pandemic right now. Most people in that country don't have access to vaccines. That's certainly something we'd love to help with.' 

Other lawmakers simply tweeted in support of the Cuban people.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, encouraged the Biden administration to get involved. 

'President Biden, freedom in #Cuba needs you now!' he wrote. 'Don’t be AWOL.'

House Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, a Republican who represents the Miami area, said the protests were the 'beginning of the end' of the Communist regime and that a 'perfect storm' presented an opportunity for the government to be toppled. 

House Rep. Ruben Gallego, a Democrat from Arizona, tweeted: 'It's time for the Cuban regime to step down and let Democracy flourish in Cuba.'

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Sen. Lindsey Graham encouraged the Biden administration to get involved, telling the White House not to be 'AWOL' 

Rubio also tweeted: 'I am asking [President Joe Biden] and [Secretary of State Antony Blinken] to call on members of the Cuban military to not fire on their own people.

'The incompetent communist party of #Cuba cannot feed or protect the people from the virus.

'Now those in the military must defend the people not the communist party.' 

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, also a Republican, tweeted: 'Florida supports the people of Cuba as they take to the streets against the tyrannical regime in Havana. 

'The Cuban dictatorship has repressed the people of Cuba for decades & is now trying to silence those who have the courage to speak out against its disastrous policies.'

Another prominent Republican, Gov. Kristi Noem of South Dakota, tweeted: 'The human heart wants to be free. This is as true in Cuba as it is in America. 

'I stand with my friend Senator Rubio and all Cubans looking to throw off the yoke of Communism and join the free world.'

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California tweeted: 'After decades of suffering through a communist dictatorship, the Cuban people deserve liberty. 

'I am proud to stand in solidarity with the people of Cuba who are calling out for freedom.'

House Rep. Steve Scalise, a Republican from Louisiana, tweeted: 'America stands with the people of Cuba as they fight for their freedom from a tyrannical government. 

'Socialism has failed everywhere it's been tried. We can't let America become another failed socialist experiment.'

Scalise ended the tweet with the hashtags #SOSCuba and #FreedomOverSocialism.'  

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez appeared at a demonstration in the Little Havana section of Miami, where hundreds gathered outside the famous Cuban Versailles restaurant to denounce the Communist regime on the island.

'Cubans are worthy and ready to rule themselves without tyranny,' Miami's mayor said on Sunday. 'It can end today and it must end today. The implications of this moment can mean freedom for millions of people in the hemisphere, from Nicaraguans and Venezuelans and so many more.' 

President Joe Biden said Monday that he stands with the 'remarkable' Cuban protesters and 'their clarion call for freedom.' 

'The Cuban people are demanding their freedom from an authoritarian regime. I don't think we've seen anything like these protests in a long long time if, quite frankly ever,' the president said at the top of a meeting in the Roosevelt Room. 'The US stands firmly with the people of Cuba as they assert their universal rights. And we call on the government of Cuba to refrain from violence in their attempt to silence the voices of the people of Cuba.'  

In a statement earlier Biden said, 'We stand with the Cuban people and their clarion call for freedom and relief from the tragic grip of the pandemic and from the decades of repression and economic suffering to which they have been subjected by Cuba's authoritarian regime.'

He said the protests represented the Cuban people 'asserting fundamental and universal rights.'

'Those rights, including the right of peaceful protest and the right to freely determine their own future, must be respected,' the president continued. 

'The United States calls on the Cuban regime to hear their people and serve their needs at this vital moment rather than enriching themselves,' Biden added.    

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President Joe Biden called the protesters 'remarkable' and made a brief statement on Cuban demonstrations on Monday from the Roosevelt Room