Obama On Trump's COVID Response: ‘Chaotic Disaster’

As expected, former president Barack Obama has been taking the high road during the coronavirus pandemic, focusing his comments around helping people stay safe and protected from the deadly disease.

It seems now, though, the 44th president is losing patience with the Trump Administration’s fumbled response to the COVID-19 outbreak that continues to claim lives.

While speaking with members of the Obama Alumni Association during a 30-minute phone call, Obama explained why there needs to be strong leadership to manage the crisis and hoped some of his former staffers would get active in Joe Biden’s bid to replace Donald Trump as president. He also described the aftermath of Trump’s inaction and divided rhetoric around the pandemic as “an absolute chaotic disaster.”

“This election that’s coming up on every level is so important because what we’re going to be battling is not just a particular individual or a political party. What we’re fighting against is these long-term trends in which being selfish, being tribal, being divided, and seeing others as an enemy — that has become a stronger impulse in American life,” he said in audio obtained by Yahoo! News. “And by the way, we’re seeing that internationally as well. It’s part of the reason why the response to this global crisis has been so anemic and spotty. It would have been bad even with the best of governments. It has been an absolute chaotic disaster when that mindset — of ‘what’s in it for me’ and ‘to heck with everybody else’ — when that mindset is operationalized in our government.

Obama added: “That’s why, I, by the way, am going to be spending as much time as necessary and campaigning as hard as I can for Joe Biden.”

Also on the call, Barack Obama said the “rule of law is at risk” after it was announced that the Department of Justice dropped all charges against former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn. Flynn pleaded guilty to making false statements to the FBI.

Listen to Obama’s conversation about the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic here.

For the latest on the coronavirus, check out BET’s blog on the virus, and contact your local health department or visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website.