going on CNN to talk about Cuba

Paint us a picture of what it's like on the ground.

What'd you see? When I first landed in Cuba, I was taken aback by how beautiful everything was. You know, you got the 1950s cars and it's a tropical island destination, but very quickly thereafter, as soon as we got into Havana,

the main city area where people congregate, I couldn't believe the sights that I was seeing. It was very sad. You had homes that looked like they were bombed out. Our tour guide at the time said that this was somewhat of a product of hurricane season and how difficult it is to like repair these buildings.

I already had known about the rolling blackouts and I experienced them later in the day. And it was definitely unlike anything I've ever experienced before. Everything's pitch black. There aren't any traffic lights on.

I was taken aback. I was very sad by all the poverty that I saw and then I was very angry. It was actually Ben Rhodes who told me that I would get very sad when I first went to-

Former Obama foreign policy advisor.

And he was right. It was very sad to see. But then it was very anger-inducing because I felt like, you know, there was a lot of potential on this island that we were just robbing the people of. And it's totally cruel and totally unnecessary. The blockade itself is designed to be invisible. It's a system of sanctions. It's this like bureaucratic nightmare that basically renders it impossible

for the island to do regular commerce, just like any other country. Banks can't take out loans from any other banks. And you, as an American citizen, as a matter of fact, have a lot of restrictions on what you can and can't do, both on the island, or if you want to even send money.

If you have relatives on the island, it's a very difficult process to like directly send cash payments to your relatives as well. It's totally unnecessary. These rules are so arbitrary, and yet they're so damaging to everyday Cuban existence.

What were you most surprised by actually seeing it up close

and personal?

I was surprised by the resilience. I was surprised by the fact that people, in spite of all these struggles, were still surviving.

And real quickly, there are a lot of people that are watching this, especially places like South Florida, that feel like the regime is repressive, that it's been a terrible regime, that it's killed people, and that what you're doing is propping them up. What do you say to that?

I just don't want babies to die. I don't want people to suffer. I don't want people to suffer. The difference in opinion as far as how Cuba governs itself is up to the Cuban population.