Trump hits back at Obama for criticising pandemic response, slams the ex-prez's response to swine flu outbreak
President Donald Trump slammed former President Barack Obama in a series of tweets on Sunday, May 10, in response to his predecessor's criticism of his coronavirus response. Trump claimed he was getting "great marks" for his response to the Covid-19 outbreak and aimed an attack at Obama and his Vice President Joe Biden for their handling of the Swine Flu outbreak in 2009.
"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 tweeted on Sunday morning. "Compare that to the Obama/Sleepy Joe disaster known as H1N1 Swine Flu. Poor marks, bad polls — didn't have a clue!"
The H1N1 pandemic hit the US nearly one year after Obama took office in 2008, and the former president swiftly declared the outbreak a national emergency in October 2009.
Trump wrote nearly 50 tweets on the morning of May 10 before concluding his tirade with an all-caps tweet: "HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!" The president's tweets and reports covered a range of topics, including criticizing "fake news", probing Russian interference, the Department of Justice dropping the Michael Flynn case, and the country beginning to reopen amid loosening coronavirus restrictions.
The Republican dedicated a few tweets to Obama, taking aim at him just days after the former president had stated that the current administration's response to the coronavirus crisis has been an "absolute chaotic disaster". Trump's several retweets also included more criticism of Obama, alleging that he knew the details surrounding former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn's call with Russian diplomat Sergey Kislyak.
Trump also retweeted tweets noting multiple supposed actions he claimed were problematic during his predecessor's presidency. "A pattern? Obama's IRS targeted conservatives before the 2012 election. Obama's FBI targeted President Trump and his allies before the 2016 election. Scary!" Republican representative from Ohio Jim Jordan tweeted on Saturday, May 10. The president retweeted this adding: "...And we caught them and their illegal activities!"
The former president, on Friday, May 8, had blamed Trump and his allies of exacerbating "tribal" tensions across the country during the pandemic. Obama said that the tensions have affected the effort to reduce the growing number of coronavirus cases in the country.
"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," the former president had said in a web call, audio of which was obtained by Yahoo News.
"And by the way, we're seeing that internationally as well," Obama continued. "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," he 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."
Obama, in the call, also asserted his endorsement for Biden, saying: "That's why, I, by the way, am going to be spending as much time as necessary and campaigning as hard as I can for Joe Biden."