A Democratic U.S. congresswoman recently got kicked out of a committee hearing.
The congresswoman, according to the Washington Examiner, is U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA).
The incident took place last Thursday, during a hearing of the Western Hemisphere Subcommittee, which operates under the House Foreign Affairs Committee. The subject of the hearing was U.S.-Cuba relations.
Something worth keeping in mind as we proceed is that Lee is not a member of the subcommittee.
A portion of the incident was caught on camera. Rep. Lee posted the footage on social media in an obvious attempt to garner sympathy for her cause. Take a look:
I was just kicked out of a House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee hearing on Cuba policy because the Republican Chair didn’t like my views.
I’d share the livestream, but Republicans cut out the sound when I stood up to defend myself & call them out. pic.twitter.com/eqV1ymor9j
— Rep. Barbara Lee (@RepBarbaraLee) January 18, 2024
As you can gather from the video, Lee interrupted the hearing in order to advocate for the re-establishment of a relationship between Cuba and the United States.
However, U.S. Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-FL), the subcommittee's chairwoman, was having none of it.
In contrast to Lee, Salazar, according to the Examiner, is "a former journalist [who] has pushed for Cuba to stay on America’s list of countries sponsoring terrorism, citing the regime being repeatedly flagged for human rights violations."
The exchange between Lee and Salazar continued after the hearing on social media. In several posts, Salazar accused Lee of spreading "communist propaganda" and of being a "communist sympathizer."
"Today, I exercised my authority as Subcommittee Chairwoman to not allow an off-Committee Member to spread communist propaganda during my Cuba hearing. Members are not entitled to join any Committee proceedings without full consent of the Committee Members," Salazar wrote.
In a subsequent post, Salazar continued, "Barbara Lee tried to disrupt an important discussion about the Biden Administration’s lenient policies toward the Cuban regime. Barbara Lee is a communist sympathizer who was a personal friend to Fidel Castro, has visited Cuba 21 times, and has been a mouthpiece for the Cuban Regime since 1977."
Salazar concluded, "Letting someone as radical as Barbara Lee degrade a hearing on Cuban freedom would insult the Cuban exile community in Miami and amplify regime propaganda."
Lee, for her part, continues to insist that Salazar is trying to "silence" her and is therefore undemocratic.
