Former President Barack Obama on Tuesday called out President Donald Trump’s haphazard handling of the coronavirus pandemic, urging voters to “demand better of our government.”
“We’ve seen all too terribly the consequences of those who denied warnings of a pandemic,” Obama tweeted. “We can’t afford any more consequences of climate denial. All of us, especially young people, have to demand better of our government at every level and vote this fall,” he added.
Obama, who has rarely attacked Trump since leaving office in 2016, did not mention the current U.S. leader by name in the tweet.
Trump has been fiercely criticized for downplaying the threat of the virus for weeks while his administration dithered. He has previously called climate change a “hoax” and his administration has pursued an anti-environment agenda.
Trump has also sought to blame Obama for his own government’s botched response to the public health crisis that has sickened more than 188,000 people in the U.S. and killed upwards of 4,000. The U.S. now has more confirmed coronavirus cases than any other country in the world.
Obama linked to a Los Angeles Times article documenting the Trump White House’s rollback of Obama-era fuel economy standards with his tweet.
Check out Obama’s post here: