Lincoln Diaz-Balart: “One thing that some of you may not know about John McCain's time at the Hanoi Hilton was that he spoke of a Castro…”

“One thing that some of you may not know about John McCain's time at the Hanoi Hilton was that he spoke of a Castro regime thug and his Cuban underling. They were sent to Vietnam to torture American POWs, to torture John McCain's friends. He had hoped to one day identify those barbaric individuals and bring them to justice. Sadly, John did not see that egregious injustice, along with so many perpetuated by the Castro regime, resolved in his lifetime. John witnessed firsthand the evil of communism, along with the tyranny and the inhumanity that it breeds. A tyrant capable of such brutal oppression of his own people could also be responsible for unspeakable atrocities to those who would stand up to the tyranny. Perhaps that experience, Mr. Speaker, personally motivated John McCain's passionate advocacy for freedom and human dignity, as well as his untiring outreach to those languishing under tyranny anywhere in the world, as Mr. Costa mentioned just a little while ago. He was a fitting chairman of the International Republican Institute's board since 1993, an organization whose mission is to promote freedom and civil society and democracy to some of the world's most repressive environments. That mission aligned perfectly with Senator McCain. So, yes, although I am deeply saddened by a loss of such magnitude, I will tell you that I am encouraged by the knowledge that his example will continue to inspire and educate for many, many generations to come.…”