White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Wednesday that it was “unfortunate” President Barack Obama’s handshake with Cuban President Raul Castro at Nelson Mandela’s memorial service was criticized.
Earnest said in a press briefing that the President shook hands with everyone who was on stage at the service, Castro being one of them. The two didn’t have an “opportunity for a robust exchange of ideas,” he said, but rather “exchanged pleasantries.”
Earnest also was asked about Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) comments comparing the encounter to former British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain shaking hands with Adolf Hitler, and said such comparisons were a “dangerous and usually unwise thing to do in public.”
This post has been updated.
