One day after a rare criticism from a past president, President Donald Trump lashed back at Barack Obama and "Sleepy Joe" Biden, hailing his task force's response vs. the past "poor marks" during the H1N1 outbreak.
Trump tweeted Sunday morning:
"We are getting great marks for the handling of the coronavirus pandemic, especially the very early BAN of people from China, the infectious source, entering the USA. Compare that to the Obama/Sleepy Joe disaster known as H1N1 Swine Flu. Poor marks, bad polls – didn't have a clue!"
Trump's remarks are an apparent response to former President Obama having called the Trump administration's coronavirus task force response "so anemic and spotty" and "an absolute chaotic disaster."
Obama told members of the Obama Alumni Association in an audio obtained by Yahoo! News:
"This election that's coming up on every level is so important because what we're going to be battling is not just a particular individual or a political party. What we're fighting against is these long-term trends in which being selfish, being tribal, being divided, and seeing others as an enemy — that has become a stronger impulse in American life. And by the way, we're seeing that internationally as well. It's part of the reason why the response to this global crisis has been so anemic and spotty. It would have been bad even with the best of governments. It has been an absolute chaotic disaster when that mindset — of 'what's in it for me' and 'to heck with everybody else' — when that mindset is operationalized in our government."
Trump's comments rejecting the "broken system" leftover from the Obama administration are not new, but the rebuke of a sitting president by a former one is rare in American history. Most often, former presidents have permitted the ensuing leadership to operate without criticism.
This relationship is a bit more divisive, though, as President Trump has made unwinding Obama administration regulations and executive orders one of his top agenda goals.
When the White House coronavirus task force conducted daily briefings, Trump often rejected criticism of his administrations response on testing and supply of personal protective equipment and ventilators as a shortcoming of the Obama administration having failed to replenish supplies after past public health epidemics.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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