Obama Claims Trump Is 'Jealous of COVID's Media Coverage'
Former President Barack Obama on Tuesday claimed President Donald Trump is “jealous” of COVID-19 as he ramped up his attacks on the president.
Obama was campaigning in Orlando, Florida, for Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, and claimed Trump has mishandled the pandemic.
“More than 225,000 people in this country are dead. More than 100,000 small businesses have closed. Half a million jobs are gone in Florida alone. Think about that,” Obama said, according to CNN.
“And what’s his closing argument? That people are too focused on COVID. He said this at one of his rallies. COVID, COVID, COVID, he’s complaining. He’s jealous of COVID’s media coverage,” Obama said.
Obama on Trump’s closing argument: “COVID, COVID, COVID he’s complaining. He’s jealous of COVID’s media coverage.” pic.twitter.com/LDMZxLd0es
— The Recount (@therecount) October 27, 2020
“If he had been focused on COVID from the beginning, cases wouldn’t be reaching new record highs across the country this week,” he said.
Trump later mocked “Obama’s no crowd, fake speech for Biden, a man he could barely endorse because he couldn’t believe he won.”
Now @FoxNews is playing Obama’s no crowd, fake speech for Biden, a man he could barely endorse because he couldn’t believe he won. Also, I PREPAID many Millions of Dollars in Taxes.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 27, 2020
Obama said that because he was once in the White House, he is able to stand in judgment of the current outbreak of the virus among White House staff.
“Let me say this: I lived in the White House for awhile,” Obama said. “You know, it’s a controlled environment. You can take some preventive measures in the White House to avoid getting sick. Except, this guy can’t seem to do it. He’s turned the White House into a hot zone.”
Some noted that Obama had not covered himself with glory in dealing with infectious disease while he was in the White House.
Under Vice President Joe Biden, 60 million Americans were infected during the 2009 H1N1 swine flu pandemic.
“If H1N1 had proved as deadly as Covid-19, it could have killed nearly 2 million” Americans https://t.co/i0rDeOrpP7
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) October 23, 2020
People did not have to die. These Democrat Governors restricted therapeutic medicines and placed COVID 19 patients in with our elderly.
It’s sad that Obama doesn’t have a clue!— Diamond and Silk® (@DiamondandSilk) October 27, 2020
The former president further claimed that he should be the one given credit for the economic growth that has taken place under Trump.
“Listen, you’ve got a President right now, he wants full credit for an economy that he inherited, he wants zero blame for the pandemic he ignored. But you know what, the job doesn’t work that way. You’ve got to be responsible 24/7. You’ve got to pay attention 24/7. Tweeting at the TV doesn’t fix things. Watching TV all day doesn’t fix things. Making stuff up doesn’t fix things,” Obama said.
Obama said that Trump was elected in 2016 because “We were complacent last time. Folks got a little lazy. Folks took things for granted. And look what happened. Not this time.”
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In an Op-Ed for the Washington Examiner, Stephen Moore noted perfection and pandemic are mutually exclusive terms, and touched on the reality of the economy under Obama.
“People can debate Trump’s handling of the virus and the mistakes that have been made. It now looks like under any scenario, except an airtight sequestering of those over the age of 75, smokers, diabetics, and severely overweight people, we would have seen the same or worse results,” he wrote.
As for the economy, he noted that numbers show the truth.
“Here’s the reality check. Despite Biden predicting 4% economic growth under Barack Obama, the economy barely averaged 2% — rather pathetic for a ‘recovery.’ The people who made these preposterous bullish predictions are the ones who now say the Biden economic plan will gain millions of jobs. In the last year of Obama’s presidency, growth shrunk to 1.6%, and the concern was the possibility of another recession. That’s some boom,” he wrote.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
