United States: Obama's birthday party is controversial in the midst of the Covid-19 epidemic
To celebrate his 60th birthday, the former president, born August 4, is organizing a big party with 500 guests in the midst of an upsurge of coronavirus in the country.
REUTERS / Mark Makela
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
In the United States, the 60 years of Barack Obama are talking a lot.
The former president was born on August 4, but it is above all the big party he has planned for the weekend that sparks the debate, in the midst of an upsurge of coronavirus in the country.
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With our correspondent in New York
,
Loubna Anaki
Sixty years are worth celebrating and
Barack Obama
has planned to do it big with 500 handpicked guests.
Among them, Oprah Winfrey, Georges Clooney and Steven Spielberg.
Rock band Pearl Jam will give a private concert.
Everything is planned for this weekend on the prestigious island of Martha's Vineyard, in Massachusetts.
But the event has not escaped the notice of certain elected Republicans who denounce a policy of double standards. "
If it was President Trump's birthday, the Democrats would have shouted at the Covid-19 super-propagator event
," quips an elected official, a close ally of the former Republican president. The current leader of the Republican Party asks if there are "
exceptions for the holidays of the rich liberal celebrities
".
Asked about this, the spokesperson for the White House assured that Barack Obama ensured compliance with health rules.
The organizers of the birthday party ensure that all the guests are vaccinated and will have to present a negative test, and that the event takes place outside.
In addition, Martha's Vineyard is not today among the areas experiencing a worrying increase in Covid-19 cases.
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United States
Barack obama
Coronavirus