Obama blasts Trump’s virus response as ‘chaotic disaster’

Bloomberg

Former President Barack Obama delivered a blistering attack on Donald Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, calling it “an absolute chaotic disaster” as well as “anemic.”
Obama’s remarks, first reported by Yahoo News, came in a leaked call as the former president exhorted members of his administration to rally behind presumptive 2020 Democratic nominee Joe Biden. The comments were perhaps the most scathing criticism Obama has yet delivered of his successor in the White House.
Critics have said the US government wasted precious time in February by failing to ramp up testing and stockpile supplies as the coronavirus spread in Europe. The US now leads the world in confirmed Covid-19
infections, with nearly 1.3 million as of May 09. More than 78,000 have died in the US from the virus.
However, Trump has defended his handling of the pandemic, repeatedly highlighting his Janruaay 31 decision to impose travel restrictions barring most non-US citizens from entering the US after recent visits to China.
“President Trump’s coronavirus response has been unprecedented and saved American lives,” White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said in a statement.
“While Democrats were pursuing a sham witch hunt against President Trump, President Trump was shutting down travel from China. While Democrats encouraged mass gatherings, President Trump was deploying PPE, ventilators, and testing across the country.”
Trump didn’t respond directly to the comments but in a tweet Sunday morning used the same word — “disaster” — to describe the response by Obama and Joe Biden, the presumptive 2020 Democratic presidential nominee, to the 2009-2010 H1N1 swine flu outbreak. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that about 12,469 Americans died from the H1N1 pandemic, from about 61 million cases.
Obama cast the US response to the virus as an outgrowth of tribalism as he sought to emphasize the urgency of the November election.
“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” as well as internationally, Obama said.
“And it’s part of the reason why the response to this global crisis has been so anemic and spotty,” he said. While coronavirus “would have been bad even with the best of governments,” Obama said.