Matt Salmon: Obama ‘yukking it up’ at Cuban baseball game is ‘disgusting’

Republican Rep. Matt Salmon of Arizona said it’s “absolutely disgusting” that President Obama was seen “yukking it up” at a baseball game in Havana as Brussels reeled from Tuesday’s terror attacks.

“I’ve got something I’d like to get off my chest,” Mr. Salmon said at a House Foreign Affairs Committee Hearing on Guantanamo Bay, the Washington Examiner reported.

“I find the imagery of Obama yukking it up with FARC terrorists at a baseball game yesterday when Europe is under siege by terrorists disgusting,” he said. “Absolutely disgusting.”

Mr. Obama sat next to Cuban President Raul Castro Tuesday at a landmark baseball game between the Cuban national team and the Tampa Bay Rays. Earlier that day, coordinated blasts in Brussels killed more than 30 people and injured hundreds more.

Mr. Obama defended his attendance at the game and compared it to the Boston Red Sox playing their first game after the 2013 marathon bombing.

That moment, the president told ESPN, typified “the kind of resilience and the kind of strength that we have to continually show in the face of these terrorists.

“It’s always a challenge when you have a terrorist attack anywhere in the world, particularly in this age of 24-7 news coverage,” Mr. Obama explained. “You want to be respectful and understand the gravity of the situation. But the whole premise of terrorism is to try to disrupt people’s ordinary lives.”