Obama hits back as Trump scapegoats him
The gloves are off. Presidential tradition not to disparage one’s successor be damned.
A lot of us have been waiting for former President Obama to fight back against the unrelenting and vicious trashing of his reputation. President Trump has called Obama’s administration corrupt and incompetent. Obama? I don’t think most folks believe that. Could delusion be a side effect of the hydroxychloroquine cocktail the president is allegedly taking to ward off the coronavirus?
Trump is looking for anything and everything to cover the “chaos” (a term used by both Obama and whistleblower Dr. Rick Bright, demoted former head of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, to describe Trump’s handling of the pandemic in which nearly 90,000 Americans have lost their lives so far. If you ask me, chaos is a fitting description for not just his handling of the pandemic but his entire presidency. )
It’s about time that Obama hit back. He recently blasted Trump, first in a recent phone call to former staffers that was “leaked” to the press and later delivered more subtle slams in a virtual graduation speech for the country’s high school seniors. Silent until now, Obama had to to be sick of the downright abuse.
Trump’s obsession with Obama goes back to when Trump first announced he was mulling a run against Obama during his second term. Trump didn’t end up running, but he promoted the birther movement, claiming that Obama wasn’t an American citizen, and therefore, ineligible to be president. Trump clamored, loudly, for proof, and Obama produced his birth certificate showing he was born in Hawaii, which he made public — a first for a sitting president. And, I might add, a disgracefully disrespectful request.
In her bestseller, “Becoming,” former first lady Michelle Obama said Trump’s birther vitriol endangered her family’s safety and she received a barrage of hate and death threats. Of course, Trump played incredulous that his words and actions could provoke others to commit rash or harmful acts.
Trump continued his obsession with deconstructing Obama’s legacy by systematically undoing everything Obama put in place — starting with the attempted dismantling of Obamacare. Can you imagine not having access to the kind of health care it provides during this coronavirus pandemic?
As the election nears, Trump and his minions are busy trying to salvage his reelection amid a pandemic that polls show most Americans feel he has handled badly. Obama will definitely continue to be one of his scapegoats. Trump wants a new probe of Obama’s handling of Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. You would think Trump would not want to dredge Russia up again, as there is a sizable group of folks who still think the Russians helped him win. But Attorney General Bill Barr says he won’t pursue a probe. I think most Americans know how much they can trust or believe him for that matter, especially as he’s dispensing “get out of jail free” cards to Trump’s many cohorts, including Paul Manafort and more to come for sure.
Right now, I don’t think most folks care about the past. They care about the present and future, and navigating the devastating circumstances we now face. Trump claims Obama left the cupboards bare at the Strategic National Stockpile. So what does Trump do, he cuts the budget — leading to a mad scramble for badly needed PPE and medical supplies. Chaos.
Some of my political and media friends who support Basement Joe Biden are wringing their hands wondering how his camp will handle the Obama factor in this race for the presidency. They worry about the perception of a Biden-Obama rerun. But the fact is that a major part of Biden’s legacy is tied to Obama’s. They are a good team. Get over it.
And there’s something else of value in the presidential race that only Biden and Obama can claim: their administration’s historymaking rescue of our economy in 2008, then on the brink of collapse, and for successfully beating back two potential pandemics — H1N1 and Ebola — on their watch. Unfortunately Trump’s claim to fame was a flush economy. Right now, that seems a distant goal — maybe best handled by experienced hands who’ve mastered turnarounds before.