Obama: Trump Messed US up
Ex- President lashes out over economy and coronavirus failures ahead of last night’s debate
BARACK Obama tore into Donald Trump’s claims to have created the best economy in US history, saying: “Just like everything else he inherited, he messed it up.”
The former US president unleashed a blistering attack on his successor’s four years in power as he hit the campaign trai l i n support of hi s former Vice President Joe Biden.
He told a drive- in Democratic rally : “I never thought Donald Trump would embrace my vision or continue my policies, but I did hope f or t he sake of t he country that he might show some interest in taking the job seriously,” Obama said.
“But it hasn’t happened. He hasn’t shown any interest in doing the work or helping anybody but himself and his friends.”
He a l s o d e n o u n c e d Tr u mp’s handling of the coronavirus crisis.
Highlighting how the former US Apprentice host boasted there was “not much” he would change about his response to the pandemic t h a t h a s k i l l e d o v e r 220,000 Americans and infected eight million, Mr Obama said: “Really? Not much? Nothing you can think of that could have helped some people keep their loved ones alive?
“This i s not a reality show. This is reality.”
He also suggested Trump had used the presidency to raise his own profile, telling supporters in Philadelphia on Wednesday : “Even t hen , hi s TV
He’s shown no interest in helping anyone but himself BARACK OBAMA ON TRUMP’S PRESIDENCY
ratings are down. So you know that upsets him.”
On the revelation that Tr u mp h a s a b a n k account in China, he said: “We know k h he continues to do business with China because he has a secret Chinese bank account. How is that possible? Can you imagine if I had a secret Chinese bank account when I was running for re- election? They would have called me Beijing Barry.”
He said it is “not a great idea to have a president who owes a bunch of money to people overseas”.
And he said he himself had probably paid more income tax as a schoolboy working in an ice- cream shop than the $ 750 Trump had paid during each of his first two years in the White House.
Speaking of life without Trump in the White House, he said: “You’ ll be able to go about your lives knowing the President is not going to retweet conspiracy theories about secret cabals running the world or that Navy SEALS didn’t actually kill Bin Laden.
We wouldn’t tolerate it from a coach, [ or] a coworker. We wouldn’t tolerate it from our family – except for maybe our crazy uncle.”
It sent Trump into meltdown at a rally hours later, where he dubbed his predecessor “Barack Hussein Obama”.
The President told supporters in Gastonia, North Carolina: “You know
Obama’s now campaigning. Oh, here we go.” Comparing Obama’s delay in backing his former VP with his support for Hillary Clinton who Trump defeated in 2016, he added: “He refused to support Biden.
“There was nobody that campaigned harder for crooked Hillary Clinton than Obama. He was all over the place.
“The only one more unhappy than
crooked Hillary that night was Barack Hussein Obama.”
He also remained fixated on the size of the crowd at his inauguration four years ago, insisting it was bigger than Obama’s. He claimed photos showing a poor turnout were taken “about five or six hours” after he had finished speaking.
He added: “When I was speaking, it
was packed.” However, timestamps on the two photographs showed they were both taken at 12.01pm – which is the time a president takes the oath of office.
Trump and Obama spoke after US national security officials said Iran was responsible for sending threatening emails to Democratic voters ahead of the November 3 el e ct i on . The email s
appeared to come from a far- right proTrump group and were meant to “incite unrest”, National Intelligence Director John Ratcliffe said.
He added that US officials had found Iran and Russia had obtained “some voter registration information”.