Obama Suggests US Lacks Leadership on Coronavirus in Commencement Address

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In a two-hour video address to the graduating class of 74 historically black colleges across the country on Saturday, former President Barack Obama critiqued the current administration's response to the coronavirus pandemic, saying many officials "aren’t even pretending to be in charge.” It's the second time in a month that the Democrat has weighed in on the country's handling of the crisis, after a private conference call leaked in which he called it "an absolute chaotic disaster."

Outlets on the left and right tended to focus on Obama's implicit criticism in their coverage, with many using loaded words like "rips" and "attacks" to describe his comments. Those in the center reported more generally on the contents of the speech.

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Barack Obama attacked the Trump administration’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic during a speech on Saturday.

The comments are a rare rebuke of a sitting president from one of his predecessors, and come in the midst of a pandemic that has had devastating and disproportionate effects on communities of color in the United States.