Republican Senator Marco Rubio criticized rapper Jay-Z for his recent trip to Cuba on ABC's “This Week” on Sunday.
“I think Jay-Z needs to get informed," Rubio said. "One of his heroes is Che Guevara. Che Guevara was a racist. Che Guevara was a racist that wrote extensively about the superiority of white Europeans over people of African descent, so he should inform himself on the guy that he’s propping up."
Rubio, who represents Florida and is of Cuban descent, said instead of traveling to the island nation Jay-Z should make a better effort to understand Cuba's tumultuous political past by talking to Cuban immigrants living in southern Florida.
More from GlobalPost: LISTEN: Jay-Z talks about controversial Cuba trip and Obama in new song (VIDEO)
The rapper recently visited Cuba for his fifth wedding anniversary with wife Beyonce, igniting a firestorm of controversy. Americans are officially barred from traveling there.
The comments follow Jay-Z 's recent song, "Open Letter" which addresses the criticism: "Politicians never did shit for me except lie to me, distort history … They wanna give me jail time and a fine."
Here is what Rubio had to say:
Every day, reporters and producers at The World are hard at work bringing you human-centered news from across the globe. But we can’t do it without you. We need your support to ensure we can continue this work for another year.
Make a gift today, and you’ll help us unlock a matching gift of $67,000!