US Cuban Officials Clash at UN in Shouting Match
Left 55%
Center 0%
Right 45%
6 left · 0 center · 5 right
What happened
On Tuesday at the U.N. General Assembly in New York, U.S. Ambassador Mike Waltz spoke against the annual non-binding resolution condemning the U.S. economic embargo of Cuba — a measure that has received overwhelming support for 34 years, including a 165-7 vote last year — while presenting photographs he said showed luxury watches and properties of Cuban leaders. Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla and other Cuban delegates banged their table and shouted for a point of order; Rodríguez approached the podium and called Waltz a liar. Waltz told him to "back up," said "This is America," and that Rodríguez was "not going to intimidate me in the United States of America — like he tries to intimidate political prisoners"; the assembly president suspended the meeting, then allowed Rodríguez a point of order limited to procedure, during which Rodríguez accused Waltz of "grossly lying." Waltz finished his speech urging a vote against the resolution; video showed a Cuban diplomat reaching for the iPhone of Waltz spokesman J.P. Freire as Freire recorded the exchange.
Sourcing check · Mostly on the record · 11 articles
9 of 11 articles cite a named source for the story. It was on the record from the first report.
What these terms mean and how they're counted
- On the record · names a source 9 of 11
- On the record means the article cites a source by name for the story's main claim: a person, or an institution speaking officially, such as a company statement or a named agency's spokesperson. The opposite is an unnamed source. The count is how many of the counted articles cite at least one such source; the names are everyone named across them, each once however the articles spell it. Here: Mike Waltz, Bruno Rodríguez, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla and Marco Rubio
- Primary evidence · cites a document or data 2 of 11
- Primary evidence means the article cites a record you could check yourself: a court filing or ruling, a dataset or report, a recording or transcript, an official statement or press release, market data. A quote is not a document. The count is how many articles cite one. Here: video
- Credits another outlet 0 of 11
- The article says the story comes from another outlet's reporting (“first reported by Reuters”). Those articles relay the story; they are not independent confirmation. Here: Each article presents its own reporting.
- Unnamed sources 1 of 11
- The main claim is attributed to people who are not identified: “people familiar with the matter”, “officials said”. The count is how many articles do this.
- How it developed
- When the first report landed and whether it named anyone; when the first named source and the first document appeared. Here: First report Oct 27, 14:29 UTC by Daily Wire, naming its source. First document in the first report, from Daily Wire (video).
- Not counted 0
- Opinion, analysis and video pieces, and articles too short to assess. Every count above is out of the counted articles. An article republished under a new headline is one article.
This is about who is cited, not whether the story is true. Each source below says what it names. How we count
Omitted — what each side leaves out
Unpacked
Left-leaning coverage never specifies the images Waltz had on screen when the Cuban delegation erupted, so a reader cannot tell what set the shouting off. Right-leaning coverage fills that hole: the speech included photographs of Fidel Castro in Rolex watches, according to Daily Wire. The same exhibit becomes alleged corruption in ABC News, and the floor fight then reads as a generic insult trade rather than a clash over those pictures.
Left-leaning coverage names a shouting match and stops at that. The same minutes become a "mob scene" in Breitbart, recasting the interruption as a coordinated crush on the speaker.
Who outside the U.S. and Cuban missions authenticated the photographs of watches and island properties Waltz put on the floor?
Bottom line
Read ABC News and this is an embargo shouting match; the Rolex photos Waltz was holding up never appear, though Daily Wire treats them as the fuse.
The receipts — 5 facts one side's coverage lacks
- Waltz displayed photographs of Fidel Castro wearing Rolex watches during the speech
- A Cuban delegate tried to grab spokesman J.P. Freire's iPhone as he recorded the confrontation
- Trump's warning of tariffs on countries that provide oil to Cuba has effectively cut off fuel and led to widespread power outages
- Last year's embargo resolution passed 165-7 with 12 abstentions
- Waltz said Secretary Rubio had ordered Cuban First Secretary Richard Tur de la Concepcion out of the country within 24 hours
The Left View
Left-leaning outlets described a "stunning" break from U.N. diplomatic decorum that "perfectly captured the heightened tensions" as the Trump administration "seeks to force changes to Cuba’s political system by increasing its already punishing economic campaign." ABC News stressed that Cuba is "being pushed to a breaking point" after Trump’s late-January warning of tariffs on countries that provide oil, which "has effectively cut off fuel" and led to "widespread power outages" affecting cooking, water, internet, and telephone service. They relayed Cuban officials’ argument that as Washington demands Cuba open to private investment, it "keeps piling on sanctions that stymie the very economic opening it has sought," and noted that while the resolution is not legally binding, it does "reflect world opinion." ABC quoted Waltz telling delegates to "Imagine what happens when someone ask these questions in Havana," and reported Rodríguez’s post that Waltz "with his arrogance and hubris, forgets that he is at the United Nations," alluding to Waltz’s earlier Signal-chat controversy. They also placed the clash as the latest in a series of public spats, including an encounter a week earlier outside a U.S.-hosted panel with Cuban dissidents.
The Right View
Right-leaning outlets cast Cuban officials as organizing a "mob scene" or "act of repudiation" to shout Waltz down as he presented photographs of Fidel Castro and President Miguel Díaz-Canel wearing Rolexes, the Castro family’s Cayo Piedra private-island resort, other luxury compounds, and Castro grandchildren’s yachts and foreign travel "all while Cubans endure" shortages. They emphasized that Waltz "did not budge" and told Rodríguez he would not be intimidated "like he tries to intimidate political prisoners," and treated video of a Cuban diplomat grabbing at Freire’s phone as an American staffer being "assaulted." The Daily Wire reported that Secretary of State Marco Rubio moved to expel Cuban First Secretary Richard Tur de la Concepcion from the United States; Waltz said on Fox News, "You lay a hand on an American here in the United States... There will be consequences." These outlets presented Waltz’s case as one of hypocrisy: communist leaders "blame capitalism for Cuba’s misery" yet "have no problem benefiting from the global luxury goods marketplace."
Our Take (balanced)
Left-leaning coverage’s strongest argument is that the confrontation occurred amid a U.S. "maximum pressure" campaign, including oil-related tariffs that ABC says have "effectively cut off fuel" and caused "widespread power outages," against an embargo the General Assembly has condemned by lopsided votes for 34 years — and that Cuban officials say those sanctions block the economic opening Washington claims to seek. Right-leaning coverage’s strongest argument is the specific photographic evidence Waltz displayed of leaders’ luxury watches, private island, and elite properties, plus video of a Cuban diplomat grabbing at an American staffer’s phone, which they treat as documentation of regime hypocrisy and intimidation. The central unresolved tension is whether the floor clash primarily showed Cuban officials’ intolerance of documented elite privilege, or a rupture of diplomatic norms under a U.S. pressure campaign most U.N. members have repeatedly opposed.
11 sources
- US, Cuban officials engage in shouting match during UN debate over economic embargo
- 'You're lying' - US and Cuban officials get into shouting match at UN
- UN holds annual vote on condemning US embargo on Cuba as tensions spill into public
- ‘Back away from this podium’: UN ambassador posts video of confrontation with Cuban reps in General Assembly Hall
- 'This is America!' Waltz says as he and Cubans get into shouting match at UN
- U.S. Expels Cuban Diplomat After Fiery Showdown at United Nations
- America Gets Into Shouting Match With Cuba On UN Floor
- Mike Waltz gets in shouting match with Cuban delegate at UN as American staffer assaulted
- Cuban 'Diplomats' Form Mob Scene at U.N. as Ambassador Mike Waltz Exposes Castro Family Riches
- ‘This Isn’t Havana’: Rubio Drops Hammer On Cuban Diplomat After U.N. Floor Brawl
- ‘Back Up, Ambassador. Back Away!’: Mike Waltz Says Cuban Foreign Minister Tried To Intimidate Him Mid-Speech
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