Trump’s response to COVID-19 pandemic a ‘chaotic disaster’ —Obama

Former United States President Barack Obama has described President Donald Trump’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic which has brought America to its knees as “an absolute chaotic disaster”.

Obama in his call on Saturday with 3,000 members of the Obama Alumni Association, people who served in his administration, reportedly urged his supporters to get behind Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, who is trying to unseat Trump in the November election.

“This election that’s coming up on every level is so important because what we’re going to be battling is not just a particular individual or a political party. What we’re fighting against is these long-term trends in which being selfish, being tribal, being divided and seeing others as an enemy – that has become a stronger impulse in American life. And by the way, we’re seeing that internationally as well,” Obama was cited as saying in the private call according to Yahoo News.

“It’s part of the reason why the response to this global crisis has been so anaemic and spotty. It would have been bad even with the best of governments. It has been an absolute chaotic disaster when that mindset – of ‘what’s in it for me’ and ‘to heck with everybody else’ – when that mindset is operationalised in our government.

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“That’s why, I, by the way, am going to be spending as much time as necessary and campaigning as hard as I can for Joe Biden,” he said.

Meanwhile, both China and South Korea report new spikes in coronavirus cases, with Seoul recording 34 new cases – its biggest single-day jump in about a month.

Globally, more than 279,000 have died from COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, while the number of confirmed infections has surpassed four million. More than 1.3 million people have recovered.

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