A row broke out between Democratic Congressman Mark Pocan and US Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz during a heated committee hearing on Capitol Hill, after Pocan suggested that Secretary of State Marco Rubio's views on Cuba carried less weight because Rubio had never visited the island. Waltz pushed back forcefully, pointing out that Rubio, a Cuban-American, has deep personal ties to Cuba through his family's history there, and the exchange quickly drew wider political backlash.

Pocan, a Wisconsin Democrat who has previously likened Cuba to a "silent Gaza," had recently visited the communist-run island himself before making the remarks about Rubio at the hearing. The clash, which took place on a Wednesday sitting of a congressional committee, was captured on C-SPAN and circulated widely, with critics accusing Pocan of dismissing the legitimacy of Cuban-American perspectives on the country's politics.