McConnell: Obama ‘should have kept his mouth shut’ on Trump’s coronavirus response

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on Monday that former President Obama should have held back from criticizing President Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, calling Obama’s critique “a little bit classless.”

President Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump, during an online Trump campaign event, told McConnell that Obama “slammed” President Trump over his response to the coronavirus outbreak.

McConnell replied that Obama should have followed the lead of former President George W. Bush, who largely sidestepped weighing in on politics after he left the White House. McConnell also noted that the former GOP president and his father, former President George H.W. Bush, “kept their mouths shut” after leaving office because they didn’t think it was “appropriate” to critique another president. 

“I think President Obama should have kept his mouth shut. You know, we know he doesn’t like much this administration is doing. That’s understandable. But I think it’s a little bit classless frankly to critique an administration that comes after you,” McConnell said. 

“You had your shot. You were there for eight years. I think the tradition that the Bushes set up of not critiquing the president who comes after you is a good tradition,” McConnell added. 

Neither Lara Trump nor McConnell specified which Obama comments they were referring to.

But Obama, during a private phone call, characterized the administration’s response as an “absolute chaotic disaster” that stemmed from a “what’s in it for me” mindset. 

“It’s part of the reason why the response to this global crisis has been so anemic and spotty,” Obama said, according to CNN. “It would have been bad even with the best of governments. It has been an absolute chaotic disaster when that mindset of ‘what’s in it for me’ and ‘to heck with everybody else’ … is operationalized in our government.”

Obama has rarely weighed in on policies or plans developed by the current administration since leaving office in 2017. But he took a veiled shot at the administration on Twitter late last month, saying there still was not a “coherent national plan.”

“While we continue to wait for a coherent national plan to navigate this pandemic, states like Massachusetts are beginning to adopt their own public health plans to combat this virus––before it’s too late,” Obama tweeted, linking to a New Yorker article that detailed Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker’s (R) push for widespread testing and a comprehensive contact tracing program.