On Tuesday, Sen. John McCain compared Cuban President Raul Castro with Adolf Hitler.
President Barack Obama shook hands with the Cuban President before taking the stage at the memorial service for former South African President Nelson Mandela. Obama stated that, “too many who claim solidarity with Madiba’s struggle for freedom but do not tolerate dissent from their own people.”
Of the Castro’s attendance at the memorial, McCain said, “It gives Raul some propaganda to continue to prop up dictatorial, brutal regime, that’s all it is. Why should you shake hands with somebody who’s keeping Americans in prison?” In reference to a handshake between the British Prime Minister and Hitler in 1938, he added, “I mean, what’s the point? Neville Chamberlain shook hands with Hitler.”
That 1938 handshake was seen as a symbolic action to avoid war through appeasement. Earlier this year, Sen. Ted Cruz compared funding Obama’s health law to appeasing Hitler.