The former chairman of the Republican National Committee criticized Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for saying former President Barack Obama shouldn’t share his views about President Trump’s coronavirus response.
On Monday, McConnell did an interview with Team Trump Online about recent remarks made by Obama on Trump’s response to the coronavirus. McConnell said that he believed Obama should have “kept his mouth shut” rather than criticizing Trump. In response, former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele trashed McConnell for condemning Obama.
“I’m sure Mitch is aware that a grown ass black man who happens to be a former president has agency to speak his mind on how his successor is managing this crisis, especially since his successor has yet to keep ‘his mouth shut’ about him,” Steele tweeted.
I’m sure Mitch is aware that a grown ass black man who happens to be a former president has agency to speak his mind on how his successor is managing this crisis, especially since his successor has yet to keep “his mouth shut” about him.
And “classless”?https://t.co/kx6yyH8n4k— Michael Steele (@MichaelSteele) May 12, 2020
McConnell had been asked to address the report from Yahoo News that Obama called Trump’s response to the coronavirus a “chaotic disaster” during a discussion with former members of his cabinet in the Obama Alumni Association.
“Generally, former presidents just don’t do that. I remember that President George W. Bush and his father went right through eight years of Democratic administrations after they left office and kept their mouths shut because they didn’t feel it was appropriate for former presidents to even critique a president of another party,” McConnell said.
“So, I think President Obama should have kept his mouth shut. Now, we know he doesn’t like much what this administration is doing, that’s understandable. But I think it’s a little bit classless, frankly, to critique an administration that comes after you. You had your shot, you were there for eight years. I think the tradition that the Bushes set up of not critiquing the president comes after you, is a good tradition,” he continued.
Steele suggested that McConnell was the one being “classless” in the situation. Steele, who was RNC chairman from 2009 to 2011, has been a vocal critic of Trump and the Republican Party since the 2016 election.
