Fox News contributor Karl Rove ripped former President Barack Obama’s commencement speech to graduates of historically black colleges and universities Monday, calling it a “political drive-by shooting.”
“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 said during the virtual commencement address that took place over the weekend. “A lot of them aren’t even pretending to be in charge.”
“It is so unseemly for a former president to take the virtual commencement ceremony for a series of historically black colleges and universities and turn it into a political drive-by shooting,” Rove said during an appearance on Fox & Friends. “This is a moment where these young graduates that could be inspired to a life of service, to recognize that life is going to bring challenges and how we handle the challenges is going to demonstrate our character, there are lots of positive messages that the former president could have delivered.”
Rove accused the former president of having “slandered” members of the White House’s coronavirus response team. (RELATED: FLASHBACK: Jan.21: Fauci Says Coronavirus ‘Not A Major Threat’ To U.S.)
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“He has slandered, you know, not just the president, who is his political target and he made it clear a week ago he was going to go after him, but he’s taking a slap at the vice president who’s done an extraordinarily effective job as the head of the coronavirus task force,” Rove said. “Dr. Fauci, Dr. Birx, Secretary Azar, Director Redfield, Director Collins, the Army that put up that hospital in the Javits Center, the Navy that sent its ships to Los Angeles and New York.”
Obama has recently escalated criticism of his successor, calling President Donald Trump’s administration’s response to the virus “anemic” and “spotty” in a phone call that leaked earlier this month. Trump fired back at Obama’s criticism Sunday, calling him “grossly incompetent.”
“Look, he was an incompetent president,” Trump said. “That’s all I can say. Grossly incompetent.”