{"id":25154,"date":"2020-05-11T15:17:57","date_gmt":"2020-05-11T09:47:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kashmir.today\/obama-slams-trump-handling-of-pandemic\/"},"modified":"2020-05-11T15:17:57","modified_gmt":"2020-05-11T09:47:57","slug":"obama-slams-trump-handling-of-pandemic-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/?p=25154","title":{"rendered":"Obama slams Trump handling of pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Washington:<\/strong> Former president Barack Obama has launched a scathing attack on Donald Trump\u2019s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, calling it an \u201cabsolute chaotic disaster\u201d. In a leaked web call Friday night with former members of his administration, Obama also said the Justice Department\u2019s decision to drop charges against Michael Flynn, the former Trump national security adviser who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in the Russia probe, endangers the rule of law in the US.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the audio, first obtained by Yahoo News, Obama urges former staffers to join him in rallying behind Joe Biden as he prepares to take on Trump in the November presidential election. The United States by far leads the world in the number of coronavirus infections, at nearly 1.3 million, and deaths, with more than 77,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump has been criticized as essentially abdicating any leadership role in guiding the country through one of its worst crises in a century, leaving states on their own to grapple with the pandemic and even bid against each other to obtain critical medical equipment on the open market or abroad. Critics say Trump, after first downplaying the threat posed by the virus, squandered precious time in February as the pathogen spread in America and his administration did little to stock up on testing kits and other medical gear or to develop a cohesive national strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With an eye to re-election, the president has also been blasted as putting his own political interests before human life by aggressively pushing states to reopen their devastated economies without a clear blueprint for how to do it safely. \u201cWhat we\u2019re fighting against is these long-term trends in which being selfish, being tribal, being divided, and seeing others as an enemy \u2013 that has become a stronger impulse in American life,\u201d Obama told his former staffers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s part of the reason why the response to this global crisis has been so anemic and spotty,\u201d Obama said. \u201cIt would have been bad even with the best of governments. It has been an absolute chaotic disaster when that mindset \u2013 of \u2018what\u2019s in it for me\u2019 and \u2018to heck with everybody else\u2019 \u2013 when that mindset is operationalized in our government,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Obama said that the dropping of charges against Flynn was ominous. \u201cThat\u2019s the kind of stuff where you begin to get worried that basic \u2013 not just institutional norms \u2013 but our basic understanding of rule of law is at risk,\u201d he said. Obama endorsed Biden\u2019s candidacy last month and has said he would be deeply involved in his campaign against Trump. He told the Obama Alumni Association: \u201cI am hoping that all of you feel the same sense of urgency that I do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany said Trump\u2019s response to the coronavirus \u201chas been unprecedented\u201d and has saved American lives. She harked back to the Ukraine inquiry launched by Democrats in the US House of Representatives last year that led to House passage of articles of impeachment against Trump. The Republican-led Senate acquitted Trump early this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile 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,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 Agencies<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Washington: Former president Barack Obama has launched a scathing attack on Donald Trump\u2019s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, calling it an \u201cabsolute chaotic disaster\u201d. In a leaked web call Friday night with former members of his administration, Obama also said the Justice Department\u2019s decision to drop charges against Michael Flynn, the former Trump national security […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22418,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25154\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}