Page 20 - Patrick Ottman News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Great to see you on "new day." thanks for being here. cnn is reairing the republican debate tonight at 10:00 p.m. eastern. mark your calendars. in three weeks, cnn's facebook will host the first democrat candidate's debate, tuesday, october 13th in las vegas. >> i'll give you a big event. pope francis is going to cuba tomorrow. tomorrow he begins his highly anticipated nine-day tour of that island and the u.s. he's coming here as well. three big cities, d.c., philly, new york. but let's start in havana. that's where cnn's patrick ottman is. >> the pope did something unprecedented last night....

In a speech to the country's national assembly earlier he caused there's a long road ahead for the two countries. patrick ottman was at this morning's address. we heard there was a lot of praise from raul castro but what more was he willing to reveal to the cuban people? >> reporter: this talk, this speech really seem directed not just to the cuban people but to the elite in the cuban government and military. raul castro of assuring some people he's not selling out the revolution, normalizing relations with the u.s. at least in his opinion, will not affect his hold on power. you know, he said ...

Be full-fledged embassies, an american ambassador in havana, a cuban ambassador here in washington. not just diplomatic interest sections but embassies and all that means a normalization of diplomatic relations, in other words. cnn is covering these seismic developments as only cnn can. our patrick ottman is the only reporter there. elise labott is standing by live. alina machado, jim sciutto, evan perez and our white house correspondent, jim acosta. let's go to havana first. patrick is on the scene, the only u.s. television correspondent in havana. tell us, patrick, what's going on right now ...

Years the u.s. has said in its annual terrorism reports that cuba doesn't have links to terrorism. they've been on this list for political reasons and the whole thing now is the u.s. will start treating cuba like any country that's not mired politics, diplomatic relations between two countries. if the u.s. lz a problem it can take it up between the embassy and the foreign ministry or here with the ambassador in washington and we were talking about a presidential visit, secretary of state john kerry said he wants to be the first secretary of state to go to cuba in more than 50 years. l there wi...

Then the question is why if there had been a loosening of restrictions why doesn't it improve regular cubans' lives because for 06-plus years the cuban government has been blaming all of the country's economic woes on the u.s. embargo and now it will really be up to the cuban government to improve the people's well-being, wolf. >> patrick, thanks. patrick oppmann the only u.s. television network correspondent in havana right now. critics have been quick to slam the president's shift on cuba. congressman, thanks very much for joining us. the president of the united states believes this will hel...