‘WHAT AN HONOR’: NBC's Kristen Welker Avoids Asking Tough Questions of Cuba’s Puppet ‘President’

Jorge Bonilla
April 12th, 2026 7:30 PM

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We viewed NBC’s hyped announcement of a Kristen Welker interview with Cuban dictatorship puppet Miguel Díaz Canel with dread expecting very little in the way of tough questions, a lot of uninterrupted regime propaganda, and a nonzero percentage of obsequiousness. We regret to inform you that we were not wrong. 

Here’s how NBC News touted the interview- as something Welker landed, like it was a huge get:

Our biggest concern was that the interview would turn into little more than a platform for regime talking points, with very little in the form of tough questions. U.S. Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) shared those same concerns in a press release, and posed five questions Welker should have asked Díaz Canel. Surprising no one, none of those tough questions- on political prisoners, the slavery program known as “medical missions”, ties to foreign adversaries of the United States, compliance with the Helms-Burton Act as a condition of lifting the trade embargo, and on a commitment to free speech, were asked. 

The most important portions of the interview were, in effect, Welker’s greeting and farewell (which did not air on Meet the Press), and the exchange that was hyped in order to promote the interview. The greeting was an ominous tonesetter.

KRISTEN WELKER: President Diaz Canel, welcome to Meet the Press. Bienvenidos a Meet the Press. 

MIGUEL DIAZ-CANEL [TRANSLATED]: Thank you very much. Thank you for the opportunity to be here.

WELKER [IN SPANISH]: Thank you for inviting us to your beautiful country. It is an honor.  

DIAZ-CANEL [TRANSLATED]: It is a pleasure for us to having(SIC) you.

WELKER [IN SPANISH]: Thank you very much.

The greeting very much set the tone for the rest of the interview. There was the hint of obsequiousness, the hispandering with Welker’s gratuitous rollout of her conversational Spanish (note the excessive rolling of the r for her first “gracias”).

Welker’s farewell further confirmed the obsequious tone.

KRISTEN WELKER: President Diaz Canel. Thank you so much for your time.

MIGUEL DIAZ-CANEL: Many thanks to you. Many thanks to you.

WELKER [IN SPANISH]: What an honor. Thank you very much. I hope we can return. Haha, yes.

Welker is “honored” to sit down with the seniormost apparatchik of a communist dictatorship. What an embarrassment. This explains the substance of the interview. 

Welker asked a total of 25 questions (half of which aired on Meet the Press. The questions mostly centered around a potential Trump-ordered decapitation operation similar to what occurred in Venezuela on January 3rd. There were four questions about the particular awfulness of Castro’s Cuba, and finally, there was an attempt to get to the Helms-Burton questions- which Welker asked apologetically. The final of those questions was the aforementioned promotional segment. 

KRISTEN WELKER: Would you be willing to step down if it meant saving Cuba? Esta dispuesto a dimitir con tal de salvar a Cuba, para la gente de Cuba?

MIGUEL DÍAZ-CANEL [TRANSLATED]: You are a very important and recognized journalist —

WELKER: – If the United States asked. If the United States asked –

DÍAZ-CANEL [TRANSLATED]: – Have you ever asked that question to any other president in the world?

WELKER: If it’s — because it’s one of the conditions the United States is asking for. Would you ever consider that?

DÍAZ-CANEL [TRANSLATED]: Let me explain. Have you asked that question to any other president in the world?

WELKER: I ask very tough questions to our own president, yes.

DIAZ-CANEL [TRANSLATED]: Could you ask that question to Trump?

WELKER: I ask very hard questions of President Trump.

DIAZ-CANEL [TRANSLATED]: Is that a question from you, or is that coming from the State Department of the US government?

WELKER: My question is — because it’s one of the things that we’ve heard the U.S. government talk about that they want political change here in Cuba. So my question for you — if they asked you, if they said this is one condition, would you say yes?

DÍAZ-CANEL [TRANSLATED]: Because of your honesty, I’m going to assume that you’re asking that question because of those reasons. In Cuba, the people who are in leadership position is not elected by the U.S. government, and they don’t have a mandate from the U.S. government. We have a free sovereign state — a free state. We have self-determination and independence, and we are not subjected to the designs of the United States.

It is worth noting that, despite an otherwise deferential interview, the tinpot despot can't help but crash out at the slightest bit of a probing question. And note Welker's temperament. She isn't incessantly cutting Diaz-Canel off or pointing at him with her pen, eyes bulging, as she often does when the subject has an R at the end of his or her name. Because of the prior courtesies and deference, this question came at the absolute end of the interview.

Welker’s interview set never sought to confront or challenge Díaz Canel, instead choosing to cast him as the victim of Donald Trump’s hemispheric aggression. Trump was the true villain of this disgraceful interview, not the puppet leader of a communist dictatorship sitting just 90 miles away. 

Click “expand” to view the transcript of the aforementioned interview as aired on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday, April 12th, 2026:

KRISTEN WELKER: I want to start with President Trump because President Trump’s threats to take over Cuba come as the United States has removed President Maduro from power, has invaded Iran and killed its supreme leader. Do you fear you could be killed or arrested by the United States?

MIGUEL DÍAZ-CANEL [TRANSLATED]: That is a very interesting question. Those of us who have leadership positions in the revolution have a strong commitment to our revolution and to our heroic people, and in this connection, our responsibility entails the conviction and the commitment that we’re willing to give our lives for the revolution and for the cause that we defend. So for me, that is not a matter of concern. If the time comes, I don’t think there would be any justification for the United States to launch a military aggression against Cuba, or for the US to undertake a surgical operation or the kidnapping of a president. If that happens, there will be fighting, and there will be a struggle, and we will defend ourselves, and if we need to die, we’ll die, because as our national anthem says, “dying for the homeland is to live.”

WELKER: What you’re saying is very powerful. Are you afraid for yourself, for your family, or are you prepared to, as you say, make the ultimate sacrifice if you are attacked.

DÍAZ-CANEL [TRANSLATED]: I have no fear. I am willing to give my life for the revolution. Of course, I would like — I wouldn’t like that to be the attitude of the U.S. government.

WELKER: Is Cuba actively bracing for the possibility of a military attack by the United States?

DÍAZ-CANEL [TRANSLATED]: Like I’ve always said in previous meetings and previous interviews, and when I also address the Cuban people, it is evident that there are threats out there. It is part of the rhetoric of the U.S. government. Cuba has done nothing to offend the U.S. Cuba has never said about attacking the United States or interfering with the United States affair — affairs. However, you hear that Cuba is next, that Cuba is going to be next, that there are, there’s a way out, that they’re going to take over Cuba. So from the position of responsibility within the leadership of the country, that is a warning. And we need to responsibly protect our people, protect our project and protect our country. So we are preparing ourselves for defense. But what is the concept of our preparation for defense? We have a doctrine which is entirely defensive. It is not aggressive, it doesn’t pose a threat. In addition, we also believe that as we prepare ourselves, to defend is the best way to avoid war and the best way to preserve peace.

WELKER: Let’s discuss the situation here in Cuba. The people of Cuba are suffering right now. Your power grid has failed. Food and energy are running dangerously low, and these problems existed in some form before the blockade was put into effect. Do you take any responsibility for the pain Cubans are experiencing? Ustedes, el Presidente, no se siente responsable?

DÍAZ-CANEL [TRANSLATED]: The Cuban people is suffering, and this can be seen in two areas, in the national aspect and also at the family level, because everything takes place on a daily basis. But what is the main cause for that suffering? Has it been the mistakes that I myself have made, or, like I said, a collective leadership, or is that suffering — or the government — or is that suffering is the result of the policy of intensified blockade that the United States have maintained? I think that the people can provide that answer. So these are a number of restrictions which are not applied to any other country in the world. Therefore, we lack financing in order to buy food, to buy supplies for our main productions and services, in order to have the medicines that we need and to carry out the repairs that we need for our national energy system and our industrial factories. How does that reflect on our people now?

WELKER: And yet the people of Cuba say you cannot solely blame the United States, because you can trade with other countries. The economy has been in decline for the past 10 years. Hundreds of thousands of people have left Cuba over the past decade, many of them who are young entrepreneurs. Is that a sign that the Cuban economy and government has failed the people of Cuba, la gente de Cuba?

DÍAZ-CANEL [TRANSLATED]: Like I said, when you see that at the family level, how does that happen? There is a scarcity of food, scarcity of medicine. The nights become a very long working night when you’ve been 20 hours with a power outage and the light comes on —

WELKER: This is before the blockade –

DÍAZ-CANEL [TRANSLATED]: – that’s when you need to do the house, house chores –

WELKER: – People were suffering before the blockade.

DÍAZ-CANEL [TRANSLATED]: Let me explain. Let me explain. There’s a confusion in terms of the approach. For example, we were living under the blockade conditions, but the blockade was intensified and further tightened and became qualitatively different in the second half of 2019 with implementation of 240 measures and with Cuba’s inclusion in the list of countries who supposedly sponsored terrorism. So everything became worsened. So we have the accumulated effects of the blockades, plus the effect of the tightening of the blockade, and now the effects are caused by this energy blockade. And I can say this responsibly to you, this is not the fault of the Cuban government.

WELKER: We saw it with our own eyes. Los vimos con nuestros ojos, people living in severe poverty, sufriendo in the streets of Havana, the capital city. Is it time for Cuba –

DÍAZ-CANEL [TRANSLATED]: Agree.

KRISTEN WELKER: – to take some responsibility, to look in the mirror and to change its economic system for the people of Cuba who are suffering here? Estan sufriendo?

DÍAZ-CANEL [TRANSLATED]: We conduct very self critical analysis and assessments of our reality, and we’re trying to constantly transform and change what we do in order to improve what we do. But that’s got nothing to do with the political system. It is not our political system that is embracing that inability to move forward. Our political system is serving people, is serving social justice and making everyone advanced. And it seems that it bothers other people around the world because of what it represents, because it is our system for ourselves, not that we want to impose our system on anyone else, and they try to block it like this.

WELKER: Let’s talk about the path forward. We understand that there are conversations between Cuba and the United States. Do you think it is possible to get a deal with President Trump?

DÍAZ-CANEL [TRANSLATED]: I think we can have an approach in terms of what is possible and what is difficult. I think dialogue and deals with the U.S. government are possible, but they’re difficult. Cuba has always stood by its commitments, and the United States have not fulfilled its part of the deal. In the present, the U.S., the U.S. has been engaged in talks with other countries, and while these negotiations are underway, they have attacked those countries, and all of this creates a lot of distrust. And we know that inside the United States, there are forces that whenever they see that there’s a possibility to engage in discussions, to engage in a dialogue, they try to undercut and boycott those talks.

WELKER: Are you talking directly to Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, and do you trust him?

DÍAZ-CANEL [TRANSLATED]: We have engaged in talks and we will be in talks, as long as the United States agrees to, with the U.S. representative, that they decide in order to have this relationship with us, about the — these talks are very complex processes. First, you have to establish a channel for dialogue. Then, you need to build an agenda for the discussions, including both, both common interest.

WELKER: But have you spoken to Secretary Rubio? Yes?

DÍAZ-CANEL [TRANSLATED]: I haven’t spoken to Secretary Rubio, I don’t know him.

WELKER: Let’s talk about some key demands the United States has. It includes releasing political prisoners, scheduling multi-party elections and recognizing unions and a free press. Are you willing to commit to any of those conditions that the United States has laid out?

DÍAZ-CANEL [TRANSLATED]: Well, no — nobody has make those — nobody has made those demands to us and we have established that respect to our political system or constitutional order are issues that are not under negotiations with the United States and we need to overcome, Kristen.

WELKER: They’re giving me the hard wrap. So let me, let me get these questions out. There are still more than 1,200 political prisoners, including one of the most high profile political prisoners, Cuban rapper Maykel Osorbo, who’s been in prison since 2021 for writing a protest song that won two Latin Grammys. Will you commit to releasing him and the other political prisoners?

DÍAZ-CANEL [TRANSLATED]: That’s another issue in which you can see all of these bias and all these prejudices. They speak about political prisoners in Cuba. Like you said, where the people is going through a very difficult situation. There are people in Cuba who are not in favor of the revolution. There are people who do not support the revolution and they manifest themselves on a daily basis against a revolution and they’re not in prison. This narrative that has been created, that image that anyone who speaks against a revolution is thrown into jail, that’s a big lie, that’s a slander, and that’s part of that construct, in order to vilify and to engage a character assassination of the Cuban Revolution.

WELKER: Would you be willing to step down if it meant saving Cuba? Esta dispuesto a dimitir con tal de salvar a Cuba, para la gente de Cuba?

DÍAZ-CANEL [TRANSLATED]: You are a very important and recognized journalist —

WELKER: – If the United States asked. If the United States asked –

DÍAZ-CANEL [TRANSLATED]: – Have you ever asked that question to any other president in the world?

WELKER: If it’s — because it’s one of the conditions the United States is asking for. Would you ever consider that?

DÍAZ-CANEL [TRANSLATED]: Let me explain. Have you asked that question to any other president in the world?

WELKER: I ask very tough questions to our own president, yes.

DIAZ-CANEL [TRANSLATED]: Could you ask that question to Trump?

WELKER: I ask very hard questions of President Trump.

DIAZ-CANEL [TRANSLATED]: Is that a question from you, or is that coming from the State Department of the US government?

WELKER: My question is — because it’s one of the things that we’ve heard the U.S. government talk about that they want political change here in Cuba. So my question for you — if they asked you, if they said this is one condition, would you say yes?

DÍAZ-CANEL [TRANSLATED]: Because of your honesty, I’m going to assume that you’re asking that question because of those reasons. In Cuba, the people who are in leadership position is not elected by the U.S. government, and they don’t have a mandate from the U.S. government. We have a free sovereign state — a free state. We have self-determination and independence, and we are not subjected to the designs of the United States. On the other hand, Cuban leaders are not here representing an — a need of power. You can see my background, where I was born, my family, what I’ve done throughout my life. We are elected by the people, although there’s a narrative trying to disregard that. Any one of us, before we become part of a leadership role, we need to be elected at the grassroot level in our electoral district by thousands of Cubans, and then those who represent the Cubans at the National Assembly of the People’s Power elect those leadership positions and those offices like it happens in many other countries around the world. So we have an election system on the basis of people’s participation. So whenever we take this responsibility position and this leadership position, it’s not out of our personal ambition or a corporate ambition, or even a party ambition. We do that as a mandate by the people, and the concept of revolutionaries giving up and stepping down, it’s not part of our vocabulary either. If the Cuban people understand that I am — I’m not fit for office, that I am not at the — risen to the occasion, then I should not be holding this position of president. I will respond to them. But you need to realize that you should not focus only on the president of the country, because we have a collegiate leadership which is very closely linked to the people. But it’s not the United States that can impose anything on us.

[END TAPE]

WELKER: You can watch my full interview with President Díaz-Canel on MeethePress.com. When we come back, Republican congressman Byron Donalds joins me next.

 

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