No other president in American history has been as hyper-focused on his own press as US president Donald Trump, which might be why he keeps dismissing the seriousness of the Covid-19 pandemic, Barack Obama joked Tuesday.
“More than 225,000 people in this country are dead. More than 100,000 small businesses have closed. Half a million jobs are gone in Florida alone. Think about that,” the former president said at an Orlando, Florida, drive-in rally to support Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.
“And what’s his closing argument? That people are too focused on Covid. He said this at one of his rallies. Covid, Covid, Covid, he’s complaining. He’s jealous of Covid’s media coverage.”
“If we were focused on Covid now, the White House wouldn’t be having its second outbreak in a month,” said Obama, adding that Trump has “turned the White House into a hot zone. Some of the places he holds rallies have seen new spikes right after he leaves town”.
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Trump has downplayed the coronavirus since the start, calling concerns about it a “hoax”, refusing to issue federal guidelines, pushing unproven treatments, insisting on holding large campaign events, and mocking people for wearing masks and social distancing. Despite the number of new cases spiking again in the US eight months into the pandemic, he keeps boasting that everything is under control.
Obama’s remarks come exactly one week before the last day of voting in an election that polls suggest Biden is favored to win. Trump has repeatedly charged that his Democratic opponent will “Shutdown the Economy at the tip of a hat” if he’s elected. Biden’s camp says the economy has suffered for as long as it has because Trump has refused to take basic steps to stop the spread of Covid-19 so that businesses can safely reopen.
Florida, where Obama was stumping for his former vice president, remains a close race with Biden leading by a couple of percentage points. Trump won the key swing state in 2016, carried by older, white and blue-collar voters, after Obama had taken Florida in 2008 and 2012.
No one should give Trump a pass on the coronavirus, Obama argued Tuesday.
“Here’s the truth: The pandemic would have been challenging for any president,” he said, “but this idea that somehow this White House has done anything but completely screw this thing up is nonsense.”