Newt Gingrich heavily criticizes the president’s friendly handshake with Chavez.
Wired PR News – Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich has heavily criticized the recent actions of President Barack Obama on numerous talk shows. As reported by POLITICO, Gingrich went on the morning talk show circuit condemning the president for shaking hands with Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez at the Summit of the Americas.
Gingrich is quoted by POLITICO as stating on “Fox & Friends,” “Frankly, this does look a lot like Jimmy Carter. Carter tried weakness, and the world got tougher and tougher, because the predators, the aggressors, the anti-Americans, the dictators – when they sense weakness, they all start pushing ahead.”
Obama is quoted in the report as stating of the criticism surrounding the cordial greeting, “It’s unlikely that as a consequence of me shaking hands or having a polite conversation with Mr. Chavez that we are endangering the strategic interests of the United States… I don’t think anybody can find any evidence that that would do so. Even within this imaginative crowd, I think you would be hard-pressed to paint a scenario in which U.S. interests would be damaged as a consequence of us having a more constructive relationship with Venezuela.”
Photo Credit: Wikipedia user Simon Dodd
