April 13, 2023: US President Joe Biden at Aras An Uachtarain in Dublin.RollingNews.ie
US President Joe Biden's recent Irish visit has appeared to anger a number of right-wing political commentators, who have accused the President of being "anti-British."
Many took issue with Biden's selfie with former Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams, claiming that it was an affront to the United Kingdom and seemingly failing to remember that several members of the Royal Family have previously posed for photographs with Adams.
Nile Gardiner, who heads the Margaret Thatcher Centre for Freedom, described Biden as a "disgrace to the United States" for posing with Adams and later said the photograph was an example of how Biden hates Britain.
Many replied to Gardiner with images of Queen Elizabeth II and King Charles III meeting with Adams in the past.
The IRA attempted to assassinate Margaret Thatcher in 1984. Here is Joe Biden taking a selfie with the leader of the IRA's political wing in the 1980s.
What message does this send to the British people?
Joe Biden is a disgrace to the United States and the office of the… https://t.co/suMJ3kVIyw
— Nile Gardiner (@NileGardiner) April 14, 2023
Former DUP leader and First Minister of Northern Ireland Arlene Foster, now a commentator for right-leaning GB News, was among Biden's most prominent critics: “He [Biden] hates the United Kingdom.
"I don’t think there’s any doubt about that and I just think the fact that he’s coming here won’t put any pressure on the Democratic Unionist Party at all.
“Quite the reverse actually because he’s seen by so many people as just simply pro-republican and pro-nationalist.”
Elsewhere, in what was dubbed a "major snub" by GB News, Biden did not fly the British flag from his car while in Northern Ireland but did fly the Irish tricolor on his vehicle in Dublin.
They did not seem to care that, unlike his visit to Ireland, Biden's visit to Northern Ireland was not a state one and that protocol dictated that a flag bearing the presidential seal be flown from Biden's vehicle.
Other right-wing Britons took huge offense to Biden's gaffe on Wednesday night, April 12 when the President comically confused New Zealand's All Blacks with the Black and Tans. Apparently, mistakenly claiming that the Irish rugby team "beat the hell out of the Black and Tans" is more offensive than the atrocities committed by the Black and Tans during the Irish War of Independence.
GB News presenter Darren Grimes certainly thought so, labeling Biden an "utter embarrassment" for the gaffe and describing the Black and Tans as a "British unit," downplaying the countless atrocities this "unit" was responsible for.
In yet another incoherent babble at an Irish pub Joe Biden speaks of his delight at Ireland beating the “hell out of the Black and Tans”.
— Darren Grimes (@darrengrimes_) April 13, 2023
He meant the All Blacks of New Zealand.
The Black and Tans were a British unit during the 1919-21 Irish independence war.
Utter embarrassment. pic.twitter.com/MBzCBOMVsG