Recently, former President Barack Obama has joined the ranks of those calling out President Donald Trump’s team for their desperate fumbling of the response to the Coronavirus crisis. Tens of thousands of Americans are dead and the CDC estimates that the total U.S. death toll from the virus will soon hit 100,000, but Trump and his allies like his top economic adviser Peter Navarro have yet to take responsibility for their shortcomings. This weekend during an appearance on ABC, Navarro responded to Obama’s latest implicit criticism of Trump by launching into a ridiculous tirade against the former president — and thereby proving Obama’s implied point about the Trump team’s pettiness.
Navarro mockingly commented:
‘I’m glad Mr. Obama has a new job as Joe Biden’s press secretary. I note, for the record, that in his speech that I read, there was no mention of manufacturing and no mention of China. As far as I’m concerned, his administration was a kumbaya of incompetence in which we saw millions of manufacturing jobs go off to China. His new normal was a flat line of wage growth, and I’m happy to report that this president, Donald J. Trump, in three an a half years, built the most beautiful economy in modern history, and the Chinese did take that down in about thirty days, but we are in the process now of rebuilding that, and this president, Donald J. Trump, is the one who has the skills to do so.’
Watch below:
“I’m glad Mr. Obama has a new job as Joe Biden’s press secretary,” White House adviser Peter Navarro tells @GStephanopoulos, responding to former President Obama’s criticism of the Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic . https://t.co/qnbPOygkcy pic.twitter.com/HKBICdz9hk
— ABC News (@ABC) May 17, 2020
Based on his comments, Navarro seems willfully blind to the suffering that Americans have faced amidst the Coronavirus pandemic. Tens of millions have people in the United States have lost work amidst the virus’s spread, meaning that those lines representing job growth have plummeted. The official unemployment rate has hit the highest level since the Great Depression — and none of that even covers the ludicrous way in which Navarro seems to approach the virus in general. He acts as though Chinese authorities somehow orchestrated the virus to take down the U.S. economy. That is profoundly irresponsible and disconnected from reality — although it fits the antagonistic racism of the Trump team quite well.
In his original comments, which aired during a television special honoring graduating high school seniors whose in-person events have been cancelled amidst the pandemic, Obama commented, addressing those watching:
‘Do what you think is right. Doing what feels good, what’s convenient, what’s easy—that’s how little kids think. Unfortunately, a lot of so-called grown-ups, including some with fancy titles and important jobs, still think that way, which is why things are so screwed up… Our society and democracy only work when we think not only about ourselves, but also about each other.’
Obama: "Do what you think is right. Doing what feels good, what's convenient, what's easy—that's how little kids think. Unfortunately, a lot of so-called grown-ups, including some with fancy titles and important jobs, still think that way, which is why things are so screwed up."
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) May 17, 2020
Barack Obama: "Our society and democracy only work when we think not only about ourselves, but also about each other."
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) May 17, 2020
Trump himself has seemed to want to completely move on from the pandemic, even though Americans continue to die each and every day due to the Coronavirus.
It really is amazing that all of the networks just aired an hourlong show celebrating students graduating during a global pandemic and everyone thought it made complete sense not only for the current president not to be involved but for the former president to be the keynote.
— Chris Geidner (@chrisgeidner) May 17, 2020
Recently, he’s even tried to take credit for the successes of governors in dealing with the pandemic, although he had previously complained endlessly about their requests for federal assistance.
