President Obama on Cuba Policy Changes

President Barack Obama sat down with ABC’s “World News Tonight” anchor David Muir to answer his questions about the restoration of full diplomatic relations with Cuba after a good half-century.

Muir asked the President if there was something he could share from his phone call with Cuban president Raul Castro to assure the American people that Cuba would be change. The President said that he wasn’t sure that 83-year-old Raul Castro would be doing any changing himself, but he believed there will be generational change.

The topic of whether 88-year-old Fidel Castro, Cuba’s former president and Raul’s brother, was aware of these events never came up, Obama said.

The President also indicated that Pope Francis played a pivotal role in helping this historic change come to pass. “He is the real deal,” Obama said, calling the pontiff a remarkable man. Obama also talked about the conversation he had with Alan Gross, the prisoner released from Cuba; and about opposition to the move.