Obama mocks Trump’s coronavirus response in online commencement speech
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Barack Obama dissed President Trump’s coronavirus leadership, and ripped the Georgia men who shot Ahmaud Arbery, during a “virtual commencement” Saturday for the graduates of historically black colleges.
“More than anything else, this pandemic has fully finally torn back the curtain on the idea that so many of the folks in charge know what they’re doing,” the former president said in an online address aimed at the 27,000 graduating seniors of 78 schools.
“A lot of them aren’t even pretending to be in charge,” he added.
It was a muted insult compared to the harsh language Obama used in a leaked phone call last week, when he called Trump’s handling of the COVID-19 an “absolute chaotic disaster.”
Obama also offered his first direct comment on Arbery, the 25-year-old jogger who was fatally shot by two white men who thought he was running from a crime scene — calling his death an example of the “underlying inequities and extra burdens” that African Americans face.
“We see it when a black man goes for a jog and some folks feel like they can stop and question and shoot him if he doesn’t submit to their questioning,” Obama said in the five-minute speech.
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