WATCH: Maxine Waters Doesn't Like It When You Bring Up Her Love Letters to Fidel Castro

In the wake of New York City electing itself a real live communist for mayor earlier this month, Rep. María Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.) introduced a non-binding resolution to Congress this past week called "Denouncing the horrors of socialism." That means it doesn't create any sort of real law — it's largely symbolic, with the intention of affirming "that the United States rejects socialism and opposes the implementation of socialist policies that threaten the freedoms and prosperity that define our nation." 

Voting in favor of it should have been a no-brainer. It was for Republicans, at least: 199 voted in favor of it, with zero voting against. For Democrats, on the other hand, only 86 managed to find it within themselves to denounce the very things the U.S. stands against, while 98 voted against and two voted present, and 47 didn't vote at all. You can't make this stuff up.  

From Nancy Pelosi to Jasmine Crockett to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, here's a list of the nays. 

To those asking for the names: https://t.co/sQAm3s8fXc pic.twitter.com/VLmi2m1eAr

— Rep Andy Biggs (@RepAndyBiggsAZ) November 21, 2025

For some of the Republicans, the vote was personal. They lived the realities of it. 

Salazar, for example, grew up in Florida, the daughter of Cuban exiles who fled Fidel Castro's reign of terror. "This is a moral vote against an ideology that has destroyed millions and millions of families," she said during her remarks. "Unfortunately, socialism and Marxism crushes the human soul. And it's not just my community in Miami. It's the rest of the hemisphere and the rest of the world."  

Rep. Young Kim (R-Calif.) also spoke from experience. "As a Korean-American who grew up in the aftermath of the Korean war, I have witnessed the horrors of socialism firsthand," she said. "… Now more than ever, as socialist ideas gain traction here at home, and as our nation’s largest city and financial capital has elected, not just a socialist but a communist, as mayor, we must firmly demand our capitalist free market system which empowers Americans of all backgrounds to achieve freedom, opportunity, and prosperity."  

Apparently, for some of the "nays," it was personal as well. But in a different way. 

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) was one of the most vocal against it, and Salazar wasn't afraid to point out why. 

If there is someone who has seen the horrors of socialism up close within the Democratic Party in the House, it is the honorable Congresswoman Maxine Waters. And I would love for you to support this resolution specifically, because Madam Waters, for decades, you traveled to Cuba dozens of times to visit Fidel Castro personally, whom you considered your friend.  Congresswoman Waters was in Havana and she saw the destruction of biblical proportions that Castro caused on that island who, at the time in 1960, had the highest per capita income in the Western Hemisphere. 

At that time, Madam Waters knew that thousands and thousands of Cubans were escaping on a raft, exposing their lives and their children's to be eaten by the sharks. She knew that Afro-Cubans were being beaten on the streets of Havana, discriminated against, uh, by Fidel Castro, Mr. Speaker. And for that reason, I am bringing up all these facts, because Madam Waters knew that the Cuban jails were full of political prisoners and the Cubans did not have the same privileges that we are having right now to speak freely. At that time, Madam Waters never raised her voice to denounce the horrors of socialism, Mr. Speaker. 

But that didn't sit well with Waters, who caused a bit of chaos on the House floor, objecting to Salazar's words and demanding they be removed from the record. You can watch that go down here:   

How ironic that Maxine Waters is the loudest opponent to my bill condemning socialism today.

I know why: even after visiting Cuba several times and seeing Afro-Cubans tortured in the streets, she never condemned it.

And now, following the playbook of the very regime she… pic.twitter.com/T6emcTFdZO

— Rep. María Elvira Salazar (@RepMariaSalazar) November 21, 2025

She can demand they remove it from the record all she wants, but the fact is that the congresswoman has, indeed, had a long love affair with Fidel Castro and communist Cuba. For decades, she's opposed the U.S. embargo on the Caribbean country, she's defended some of the policies of Castro and his regime, and yes, she's visited Cuba numerous times under the guise of improving relations between our two nations. 

In 1998, she wrote a letter to Castro, apologizing to him for "mistakenly" voting for "House Concurrent Resolution 254, which called on the Government of Cuba to extradite to the United States Joanne Chesimard and all other individuals who have fled the United States from political persecution and received political asylum in Cuba." Joanne Chesimard, also known as Assata Shakur, was a member of the Black Liberation Army and a career criminal back in the 1960s and 1970s who was finally charged with first degree murder after killing a New Jersey State Police officer in 1973. She was sentenced to life in prison, but eventually escaped and moved to Cuba, where she lived in exile until her recent death. 

Waters continues to explain in her letter that Republicans snuck the resolution in at the last minute, which is why she and other members of the Congressional Black Caucus accidentally voted for it. "I support the right of all nations to grant political asylum to individuals fleeing political persecution," she said. 

She added: 

The second reason I oppose this measure is because I respect the right of Assata Shakur to seek political asylum. Assata Shakur has maintained that she was persecuted as a result of her political beliefs and political affiliations. As a result, she left the United States and sought political asylum in Cuba, where she still resides.

In a sad and shameful chapter of our history, during the 1960s and 1970s, many civil rights, Black Power and other politically active groups were secretly targeted by the FBI for prosecution based on their political beliefs. The groups and individuals targeted included Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Cesar Chavez, officials of the American Friends Service Committee, National Council of Churches and other civil rights, religious and peace movement leaders.

However, the most vicious and reprehensible acts were taken against the leaders and organizations associated with the Black Power or Black Liberation Movement. Assata Shakur, was a member of the Black Panther Party, one of the leading groups associated with the Black Liberation Movement. The Black Panther Party was the primary target of U.S. domestic government political harassment and persecution during this era.

This illegal, clandestine political persecution was wrong in 1973, and remains wrong today.

In 2000, Waters attended a four-hour speech Castro made at the Riverside Church. Much of the speech was spent blasting the U.S. The congresswoman shouted "Viva Fidel!" alongside the crowd, and said she was there as an individual, not a member of the Democrat Party. Sure, Jan. She also made several trips to Cuba to hang out with Castro during the Barack Obama administration.   

Either way, how sad it is that one-third of the U.S. House of Representatives either refused to condemn socialism, or refused to vote and go on the record at all? 

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