Daily US Times: Former President Barack Obama again criticised Donald Trump over his response to coronavirus crisis.
Mr Obama said the pandemic had shown that many officials “aren’t even pretending to be in charge”. He said this in an online address to graduating college students.
This is the second time in recent days Mr Obama has hit out his successor Trump administration’s coronavirus response.
Last week during a conference call, he said it (the coronavirus response) had been “an absolute chaotic disaster”.
During his commencement adress on Sunday, Mr Obama said the Covid-19 outbreak had exposed failings in the country’s leadership. His this address was delivered to graduates from several dozen historically black colleges and universities.
He said: “More than anything this pandemic has fully, finally torn back the curtain on the idea that so many of the folks in charge know what they’re doing.”
“A lot of them aren’t even pretending to be in charge,” he added.
Over the last 24 hours, more than 1,200 people have died in the US with the coronavirus, according to the latest figures from
Johns Hopkins University data shows the total death toll now stands at almost 89,000, which is the highest anywhere in the world.
The former president also spoke at length about the impact the pandemic is having on black communities in the US.
He said: “A disease like this just spotlights the underlying inequalities and extra burdens that black communities have historically had to deal with in this country.”
African Americans make up a disproportionate number of coronavirus hospitalisations and deaths in the US.
During his address, Mr Obama also referenced the killing of Ahmaud Arbery – an unarmed black jogger who was shot and killed by two white men in February.
He said racial inequalities in the US were made apparent “when a black man goes for a jog and some folks feel like they can stop and question and shoot him, if he doesn’t submit to their question”.
“If the world’s going to get better, it’s going to be up to you,” Mr Obama told the graduates.
He has kept a relatively low profile since leaving office in January 2017 and has rarely spoken out about the actions of his successor Donald Trump.
But in recent days the pair have been engaged in several back-and-forths, leading Mr Trump to accuse Mr Obama and his aides of engaging in a criminal effort to undermine his presidency.
“The biggest political crime in American history, by far!” the president wrote on Twitter last week.
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