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WASHINGTON – Former President Barack Obama harshly criticized President Donald Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic as an “absolute chaotic mess” during a conversation with former members of his administration, according to a recording obtained by Yahoo News.
FILE – This Dec. 13, 2019, file photo shows former President Barack Obama speaking at the Asia Pacific Rising Leaders Gathering, hosted by the Obama Foundation in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Obama will deliver a prime-time televised kickoff speech for the Class of 2020 during an hour-long event that will also feature LeBron James, Malala Yousafzai and Ben Platt, among others. ABC, CBS, FOX, and NBC will simultaneously air the May 16 special at 8 p.m. Eastern, along with more than 20 broadcast and digital broadcast partners, according to the organizers’ announcement Tuesday. (AP Photo / Vincent Thian, file)
Obama also reacted to the Justice Department that dismissed his criminal case against Trump’s first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, and said he was concerned that “a basic understanding of the rule of law is at risk.”
More than 78,400 people with COVID-19 have died in the United States and more than 1.3 million people have tested positive, according to the latest estimates from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
Obama’s comments came during a Friday call with 3,000 members of the Obama Alumni Association, people who served in his administration.
Obama urged supporters to back his former vice president, Joe Biden, who is trying to unseat Trump in the Nov. 3 election.
“What we are fighting against is against these long-term trends where being selfish, being tribal, being divided, and seeing others as enemies has become a stronger drive in American life.” And, by the way, we are also seeing it internationally. It is part of the reason why the response to this global crisis has been so anemic and irregular, “Obama said, according to Yahoo News.
“It would have been bad even with the best governments. It has been an absolutely chaotic mess when that mindset, of “what’s in it for me” and “bugging everyone else,” when that mindset is operational in our government, “he said.
Trump has consistently defended and bragged about his response to the virus, saying that travel restrictions from China and Europe, as well as patterns of social estrangement have prevented much greater harm. “I think we saved millions of lives,” he said earlier this week.
Trump has criticized the Obama administration in relation to his own administration’s response to the outbreak. However, Trump’s claim that his administration inherited “a broken system and a broken test” from Obama is false; The new coronavirus did not exist until the end of last year.
In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had trouble developing their own test in January, and then discovered problems with their kits in February.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany did not directly mention Obama in her response to his comments.
“President Trump’s coronavirus response has been unprecedented and has saved American lives,” he said. “As Democrats searched for a false witch hunt against President Trump, President Trump was closing travel from China.”
He added: “While Democrats encouraged the mass gatherings, President Trump was implementing PPE, fans, and testing across the country.”
GSG
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