Former President Barack Obama responded to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell calling him classless for giving his opinion on Trump’s pandemic response. Obama took to Twitter to tell McConnell and other Republicans to make better policy decisions.
Obama’s post included a Vox article describing seven methods health experts say can help beat coronavirus and save the economy.
“Despite all the time that’s been lost, we can still make real progress against the virus, protect people from the economic fallout,” Obama’s post stated. “And more safely approach something closer to normal if we start making better policy decisions now.”
According to Essence, Obama’s comments come days after McConnell said that he found it “classless” for Obama to call Trump’s response to coronavirus “an absolute chaotic disaster
.”“I think President Obama should’ve kept his mouth shut,” the Senate Majority Leader told Lara Trump on Team Trump Online. “I think it’s a little bit classless, frankly, to critique an administration that comes after you.” He added, “You had your shot. You were there for eight years.”
In the same interview, McConnell also said that the Obama administration “did not leave to this administration any kind of game plan for something like this,” referring to the coronavirus crisis.
However, McConnell was forced to eat his words Thursday after numerous media outlets reported the Obama Administration left the Trump Administration a 69-page playbook with step by step priorities on how to fight a pandemic.
“I was wrong,” McConnell said when asked about his comments during a Fox News interview. “They did leave behind a plan. I clearly made a mistake in that regard.
“As to whether or not the plan was followed and who is the critic and all the rest, I don’t have any observation about that because I don’t know enough about the details of that … to comment on it in any detail,” he added.
Trump and Obama have been going back and forth as the presidential election draws closer. In April, Obama compared Trump’s slow coronavirus response to climate change deniers.
“We’ve seen all too terribly the consequences of those who denied warnings of a pandemic,” Obama wrote on Twitter. “We can’t afford any more consequences of climate denial. All of us, especially young people, have to demand better of our government at every level and vote this fall.”
Trump said in April that he was surprised that Obama did not immediately endorse Joe Biden for president and recently tried to blame Obama for the lack of coronavirus testing in the U.S.