MIAMI – In his final days of campaigning against Hillary Clinton in must-win Florida, Donald Trump made promises about making changes to the U.S. policy with Cuba.
While Clinton has been supportive of President Barack Obama's move to renew relations with the communist island, Trump isn't too eager to encourage Congress to lift the embargo.
During Trump's visit to Miami-Dade County, a Cuban mother talked about losing her son while he volunteered as a pilot for Brothers to the Rescue. After listening to her story at the Trump National Doral, the Republican presidential candidate visited the Bay of Pigs museum in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood.
"I'm humbled by this endorsement from true freedom fighters," Trump said, after the CIA-sponsored 2506 brigade survivors who tried to overthrow Fidel Castro in 1961 showed him their support.
In front of a crowd of about 100, Trump accused Clinton of turning a "blind eye to the human rights violations that occur every single day."
Trump didn't get into specifics about how he plans to push for "religious and political freedom for the Cuban people" or about how he plans to demand "the freeing of political prisoners."
Trump later met with Local 10 News reporter Andrew Perez for a one-on-one interview:
The way the deal is now, would you cut diplomatic ties with Cuba if elected?
"I would make it rough on Cuba until such time as a really good deal can be made for the Cuban people and for the United States. We have to make a deal that's good for the Cuban people and I would make sure that the deal is either made or I'd have nothing to do with them."
Perez inquired about allegations that his company was shopping around for business opportunities in Cuba in the 90s.
Have you seen the documents released by Newsweek?
"That I haven't heard about. I would have to check that out. I will say, I would say this, I would say this, I would check it out, but if it had to come back to me for approval, I would never have approved it, because I would have never done business with Cuba under the circumstances."
Before Newsweek's Sept. 29 report accusing a Trump company of violating the trade embargo in 1998, Bloomberg also reported in July that some of his top executives traveled to Cuba.
'RIGGED' election
"First of all, the fact that (Clinton) is even able to run. She deleted 33,000 emails, which is against the law."
If you lose though would you challenge it, legally?
"Well, I'm not even going to talk about that. We're going to see what happens. Based on everything, it looks like we're winning."
MEDIA COVERAGE
Do you think the media has been treating you unfairly?
"The media has been ridiculous, and everybody knows that. They actually admit it. Without the media, Hillary Clinton would be nowhere. I mean, they have protected her. They saved her. "
Didn't the media help build your brand?
"Well, I think it was built in a much different way. First of all, I built a great company. I built one of the great companies."