PASSING THE BUCK

Trump Blames CDC and Obama for His Mistakes Over COVID-19

The president was up early and lashed out on Twitter for the trouble his administration is in.

President Donald Trump is clearly feeling the stress of the global pandemic on his doorstep. On Friday morning, he tweet-blamed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and former President Barack Obama for the mistakes his administration has made in the response to the novel coronavirus. “For decades the @CDCgov looked at, and studied, its testing system, but did nothing about it,” he wrote, referring to a serious lag in U.S. testing capabilities that have led to a further spread of the virus. “It would always be inadequate and slow for a large scale pandemic, but a pandemic would never happen, they hoped.” Trump went on to blame his predecessor, writing, “President Obama made changes that only complicated things further,” he wrote. “Their response to H1N1 Swine Flu was a full scale disaster, with thousands dying, and nothing meaningful done to fix the testing problem, until now. The changes have been made and testing will soon happen on a very large scale basis. All Red Tape has been cut, ready to go!”