Obama lambasts Trump over COVID response, says he turned White house into a 'hot zone'

Former US President Barack Obama, on October 27, said that Donald Trump had turned the “White House into a hot zone”. Speaking at a drive-in election rally in Orlando, Florida, he pointed out the mishandling of the pandemic by his successor and said that cases wouldn’t have been reaching a record high if Trump had been focused since the beginning.  His remarks were made as the nationwide toll of COVID-19 reached 8,778,680, a tally by John Hopkins University stated. 

"And over the weekend his chief of staff -- and I'm quoting here, I'm not making this up -- his chief of staff on a news program said, ''We're not going to control the pandemic.'' Yes, he did and yes, we noticed," said Obama.

Obama slams Trump

Obama also hit Trump for saying "not much" when asked if he would change his response to the coronavirus pandemic. "Not much? Not much? Really? Not much? You can’t think of anything you might be doing differently," Obama said, pointing out how Trump had said "inject bleach" into infected people during a White House press conference.

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"Think about how hard the tourism industry has been hit here in Orlando, here in Florida," Obama said, pointing out that the state has already "lost one spring training season".

Last week, Obama had lambasted Trump for abruptly ending an interview. While speaking at a drive-in rally in Miami, Obama said that the US President “got mad and walked out of the interview” with 60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl, who also believes that Trump is not up to being the leader of the country. Obama said that Trump “can’t answer a tough question” and therefore, it is the responsibility of the US citizens to ensure that he doesn’t get a second term at the White House. The former Democratic leader reiterated that Trump’s behaviour earlier this week indicated that he “ain’t all that tough”. 

Read: Trump Jealous Of COVID's Media Coverage: Obama

Read: Barack Obama Criticises Donald Trump For 'getting Mad And Walking Out' Of Interview

Image: AP