For a long time, Barack Obama, former US President, refrained from openly criticising his successor, Donald Trump, even despite the latter’s seizing every opportunity to vilify his administration. Now that has changed. Obama, on Tuesday, came out smoking! He seized the opportunity of his endorsement of Joe Biden, his former Vice President, as Democratic Candidate in the December presidential election, to take a dig at Trump.
Barack Obama, according to a report by Chicago Tribune, endorsed Joe Biden for president “calling him the best person to lead the nation amid the coronavirus pandemic while also offering a pointed critique of Republican President Donald Trump’s leadership and his response to the health crisis.”
“Choosing Joe to be my vice president was one of the best decisions I ever made, and he became a close friend,” the former president said. “And I believe Joe has all the qualities we need in a president right now, Obama said.
He added: “If there’s one thing we’ve learned as a country from moments of great crises, it’s that the spirit of looking out for one another can’t be restricted to our homes, or our workplaces, or our neighborhoods, or our houses of worship. It also has to be reflected in our national government, the kind of leadership that’s guided by knowledge and experience, honesty and humility, empathy and grace. That kind of leadership doesn’t just belong in our state capitals and mayors’ offices. It belongs in the White House. And that’s why I’m so proud to endorse Joe Biden for president the United States.”
“One thing everybody has learned by now is that the Republicans occupying the White House and running the U.S. Senate are not interested in progress,” Obama said. “They’re interested in power.”
The former president, according to the report, criticized the Trump administration and Republicans for wanting to kick millions off their health insurance, eliminate protections for preexisting conditions, giving $1 trillion in tax cuts to the wealthy, loosening environmental restrictions on polluters and denying “the science of climate change just as they denied the science of pandemics.”
“Repeatedly, they’ve disregarded American principles of rule of law and voting rights and transparency — basic norms that previous administrations observed, regardless of party, principles that are the bedrock of our democracy,” Obama said of Republicans. “Our country’s future hangs on this election.”
However, Trump’s spin doctors also sent their own missile to Obama’s camp. “Now that Biden is the only candidate left in the Democrat field, Obama has no other choice but to support him,” Trump campaign spokesman Brad Parscale said. “Even Bernie Sanders beat him to it. Obama was right in the first place: Biden is a bad candidate who will embarrass himself and his party. President Trump will destroy him.”
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