President Donald Trump fired back at former President Barack Obama over comments Obama made in a phone call to supporters leaked late last week, criticizing Trump for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and defending his administration’s decision to investigate Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn — a decision that now seems like part of a coordinated, unsubstantiated attack on the incoming Trump administration.
In a massive, 50-tweet rant on Mother’s Day morning, Trump laid waste to Obama’s handling of the swine flu pandemic that killed tens of thousands of Americans in 2009, Obama’s watch and defended his administration’s decision to shut the borders to travel to China and impose strict social distancing.
“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,” Trump wrote Sunday. “Compare that to the Obama/Sleepy Joe disaster known as H1N1 Swine Flu. Poor marks, bad polls – didn’t have a clue!”
Late last week, Obama attacked Trump in a private phone call with supporters, audio of which was later leaked the press. Obama lambasted Trump over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, blamed Trump for driving a wedge between Democrats and Republicans that has led to a corrosive political atmosphere, and defended his administration’s hunt for Russian collusion within the Trump 2016 presidential campaign and Trump transition team — a hunt that not only came up empty, but now seems to have been largely orchestrated to entrap members of Trump’s team.
Obama was clearly agitated in the call, which was supposed to be a way of encouraging support for his former Vice President, presumptive 2020 Democratic presidential contender, Joe Biden.
“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,” Obama said on the call. “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,” Obama claimed. “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 peppered his tweets with good news, congratulating governors who are “opening up again,” and taking on governors like California’s Gavin Newsom, who is forcing his state to engage in mail-in voting only, and is facing criticism over his decision to selectively open areas of the state. He also retweeted several experts noting that positivity rates for coronavirus are declining across the country.
Trump ended his twitter rant on a happy note, wishing “Happy Mother’s Day!” to the nation’s mothers, including his wife, First Lady Melania Trump.
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