On Thursday, Adams, 74, posted a selfie on Twitter of himself and Biden, captioning the photo, “A President Biden selfie.”

The photo fueled further accusations that Biden was anti-British, a claim the White House refuted.

“The president has been very actively engaged throughout his career dating back to when he was a senator in the peace process in Northern Ireland and that has involved meetings with leaders of all of Northern Ireland parties from both of the two main communities,” Senior Director for Europe at the National Security Council Amanda Sloat said in a press conference. “The UK remains one of our strongest and closest allies and it’s difficult, frankly, to think of an issue in the world that we are not closely cooperating with the British on.”

[There’s a lot of legitimate reasons to criticize Biden on his trip to Ireland, but this isn’t one of them. The Good Friday Agreement legitimized Sinn Féin 25 years ago, including Adams. There was a general ‘forgiveness’ for partisans on both sides of the conflict after the GFA, which itself was part of the effort to move the dispute from warfare to politics. Adams was a key part of brokering that agreement. At this point, Adams is just another politician in Northern Ireland. — Ed]