Former President Barack Obama gave two virtual commencement speeches on Saturday, one to graduating seniors at historically black colleagues and universities, and the other, broadcast on major TV networks, to graduating high school seniors nationwide. He did not mention President Trump in either one, but parts of each were widely seen as implicit rebukes of Trump's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"More than anything, this pandemic has fully, finally torn back the curtain on the idea that so many of the folks in charge know what they're doing," Obama told the college graduates. "A lot of them aren't even pretending to be in charge." He advised the high schoolers: "Do what you think is right. Doing what feels good, what's convenient, what's easy — that's how little kids think. Unfortunately, a lot of so-called grown-ups, including some with fancy titles and important jobs, still think that way — which is why things are so screwed up."
Whether or not those were references to Trump, Trump evidently took them as such — although he claimed hadn't seen Obama's comments, widely repeated on TV and Twitter. "Look, he was an incompetent president, that's all I can say," Trump told reporters Sunday after returning from Camp David. "Grossly incompetent."
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Obama has stayed out of public politics for three years, but last week he privately told about 3,000 former staffers that the White House's handling of COVID-19 has been "an absolute chaotic disaster." Obama's graduations speeches were not political in that sense. You can watch his high school remarks below. Peter Weber
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