Former US President Barack Obama spoke to students on Saturday, May 16, during a virtual graduation ceremony, a rare public intervention since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic and in which he indirectly criticized the management of his successor in the White House. 

In a congratulatory message broadcast at a ceremony on Saturday afternoon for graduates of the Historically Black University Network (HBCU), he launched a thinly veiled criticism of Donald Trump. "Above all, this pandemic has finally buried the idea that so many of our officials know what they are doing," said Barack Obama. "Many of them are not even trying to pretend to be responsible." 

The Democrat also pointed out that the health crisis was indicative of the inequalities plaguing black Americans, and he was apparently indignant, without naming him, for the murder of 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery, shot dead on February 23 was jogging in a residential neighborhood in Brunswick, a city in Georgia, a state in the southern United States.  

"A disease like this highlights the underlying inequalities and the burden historically borne by black communities in this country," said Barack Obama. "We observe it when a black man is jogging and people decide to arrest him, interrogate him and shoot him if he does not submit to their questions." 

In private, the former president more explicitly described Donald Trump's handling of the pandemic as "an absolute chaotic disaster", during a phone call with former collaborators on May 8, according to American media. 

He said he would spend "as much time as necessary campaigning as intensively as possible for Joe Biden," which he officially supported on April 14 in a long video message. 

Against Donald Trump who spoke of the existence of a conspiracy against him nicknamed "Obamagate", Barack Obama replied last week with a word on Twitter: "Vote". 

With AFP  

With AFP

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