Former President Barack Obama colorfully criticized his successor for his management of the coronavirus pandemic as he stumped for Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden in Florida for the second time this week.
“Here’s the truth: A pandemic would have been challenging for any president. But this idea that somehow, this White House has done anything but completely screw this thing up is nonsense,” Obama said Tuesday in Orlando.
Obama used the same verb to describe President Trump’s handling of the economic crisis amid the COVID-19 outbreak, mocking the incumbent for being “jealous” of the virus’s media coverage.
“He, in fact, inherited the longest streak of job growth in American history. But just like everything else he inherited, he screwed it up,” he said.
As the rival campaigns compete for votes during the final week before Election Day, a key demographic has emerged: black men.
Obama, who released a conversation between himself and NBA great LeBron James on Tuesday morning as part of a get-out-the-vote effort targeting this voting bloc, slammed White House senior adviser Jared Kushner for suggesting on Fox & Friends this week that the black community had to “want to be successful.”
“His son-in-law says black folks have to want to be successful. That’s the problem. Who are these folks? What history books do they read? Who do they talk to?” he asked Tuesday.
Obama was also in Miami last Saturday, demonstrating Florida’s importance to Trump’s path to 270 electoral votes and the Biden campaign’s hope this cycle of returning the state to the Democratic ledger.
“We were complacent last time. Folks got a little lazy. Folks took things for granted, and look what happened. Not this time, not in this election,” he said.
Trump won Florida over 2016 Democratic standard-bearer Hillary Clinton by 1.2 percentage points. One week before the Nov. 3 election, Biden is ahead of Trump in the state on average by 1.2 points, according to RealClearPolitics.
