Watch Obama rip Trump and the GOP for 4 years of failure

Former President Barack Obama took Trump to task over his virus response, the economy, health care, and his obsession with Twitter.

By Oliver Willis - October 27, 2020

President Barack Obama held a rally on Tuesday for Joe Biden in Orlando, Florida, where he called out Donald Trump and congressional Republicans for some of their worst failures of the last four years.

Trump’s White House “completely screw[ed] up” responding to COVID-19

Obama conceded that responding to a pandemic “would have been challenging for any president,” but then went on to say, “This idea that that somehow this White House has done anything but completely screw this thing up is nonsense.”

Trump shouldn’t have suggested injecting bleach to stop the virus

In a televised town hall with the pro-Trump Sinclair network of stations, Trump said there was “not much” he would have done differently in responding to the coronavirus outbreak, despite a death toll in the U.S. now over 225,000.

Referencing the comment, Obama said, “Really? Not much?” and suggested, “Maybe you shouldn’t have gotten on TV and suggested we might inject bleach to cure COVID?”

Republicans have no credibility on protecting preexisting conditions

Trump and Republicans running for reelection have tried to claim that they support coverage for preexisting conditions, despite years of trying to undermine and repeal the Affordable Care Act, which legally requires coverage of preexisting conditions. The Trump administration is now fighting in the Supreme Court to throw out the law and the protections that it provides.

“Republicans love saying, right before an election, how they’re going to protect people who have preexisting conditions. Have you noticed that?” asked Obama. “Well, you know, Joe and I actually protected them 10 years ago with the Affordable Care Act.”

Biden was infamously caught on a hot mic calling the passage of the Act a “big fucking deal” in 2010.

Trump is “jealous of COVID’s media coverage’

On Monday, Trump complained that the media spends too much time reporting on COVID-19, which is damaging to Trump’s campaign.

“Should be an election law violation!” he tweeted.

“He said this at one of his rallies, ‘COVID, COVID, COVID,’ he’s complaining,” said Obama. “He’s jealous of COVID’s media coverage. If he had been focused on COVID from the beginning, cases wouldn’t be reaching new record highs across the country this week.”

Trump turned the White House into a COVID hotspot

This week, several aides to Mike Pence tested positive for COVID-19, marking the second outbreak of the virus at the White House after the Supreme Court “super spreader” event.

Noting that he “lived in the White House for a while,” President Obama noted that the facility is a “controlled environment” but that nonetheless Trump has twice allowed the virus to spread there.

“You can take some preventative measures to avoid getting sick, yet this guy can’t seem to do it,” Obama told supporters.

While praising Biden, Obama also noted he would not “host super-spreader events at the White House and then take it on a tour all across the country.”

Trump thinks “tweeting at the TV” fixes things

Obama noted that the economic recovery Trump inherited at the start of his presidency began while he and Biden were in the White House and that while Trump wants credit for the recovery, he wants “zero blame for the pandemic he ignored.”

“The job doesn’t work that way,” Obama said, adding that presidents are responsible around the clock for what happens on their watch.

“Tweeting at the TV doesn’t fix things, watching TV all day doesn’t fix things, making stuff up doesn’t fix things,” said Obama. “You’ve got to have a plan if you want to make people’s lives better.”

Trump didn’t build the strong economy he’s trying to run on

Trump has frequently claimed that the pre-virus economy was the strongest in American history, but does not acknowledge that he inherited that economy.

“Donald Trump likes to claim he built this economy. I just want to remind you that America created 1.5 million more jobs in the last three years of the Obama-Biden administration than in the first 3 years of the Trump-Pence administration,” said Obama. “That’s a fact. Look it up.”