Former President Barack Obama offered some rare criticism for his successor on Tuesday, saying President Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic has been much like his response to climate change and that the U.S. can’t afford another four years of science “denial.”
“We’ve seen all too terribly the consequences of those who denied warnings of a pandemic,” Mr. Obama tweeted to his 115 million followers Tuesday.
“We can’t afford any more consequences of climate denial,” he wrote. “All of us, especially young people, have to demand better of our government at every level and vote this fall.”
Mr. Obama was responding to the news that the Trump administration was rolling back his administration’s aggressive fuel efficiency standards that were intended to combat climate change.
He was also criticizing Mr. Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, echoing similar concerns that the president was too slow to take the crisis seriously.
Mr. Trump has repeatedly criticized the Obama administration’s handling of the H1N1 outbreak and claims that regulations put in place by his predecessor hampered his government’s rollout of coronavirus tests.
We’ve seen all too terribly the consequences of those who denied warnings of a pandemic. 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. https://t.co/K8Ucu7iVDK
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) March 31, 2020
