'Just not right': Trump slammed for criticising Obama in face of outrage over false coronavirus comments

Speaker calls Obama's handling of ebola 'picture perfect,' while then-citizen Trump ripped former president

Amid the coronavirus outbreak, Speaker Nancy Pelosi is calling Donald Trump's contention that Barack Obama's administration shut down a White House team focused on countering global pandemics "just not right."

The California Democrat on Thursday listed a number of virus-related matters on which her caucus wants more answers from the administration after top Trump aides, including Vice President Mike Pence, briefed them on Wednesday. She also criticised Mr Trump for a string of misleading and false statements about the coronavirus outbreak.

"That's just not right," she said at the top of her weekly press conference.

She spent several minutes defending the Democratic Obama administration over a remark Mr Trump made Wednesday during a meeting with airline executives who came to the White House eager for Mr Trump and his health team to avoid urging people to forego air travel.

"The Obama administration made a decision on testing that turned out to be very detrimental to what we're doing," the president said on Wednesday. "And we undid that decision a few days ago so that the testing can take place in a much more rapid and accurate fashion."

No federal health or White House official has been able to pinpoint just what rule the president was referencing. Ms Pelsoi noted the lack of corroboration.

She read a quote from the office of Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander in which, in her words, saying "there was no such rule change."

In fact, it was the Trump administration in May 2018 that nixed a National Security Council team led by Navy Rear Adm. Timothy Ziemer that was charged with a number of public health matters, including pandemics.

The national security health team was axed as part of a NSC shakeup orchestrated by former national security adviser John Bolton, whom Trump fired last year over policy disagreements over Syria, Iran, North Korea and other hotspots.

Mr Trump frequently blames missteps on others, especially Democrats, and has yet to admit a major mistake on the federal coronavirus response.

But he is eager to soak in any credit that might boost his re-election bid.

"With approximately 100,000 CoronaVirus cases worldwide, and 3,280 deaths, the United States, because of quick action on closing our borders, has, as of now, only 129 cases (40 Americans brought in) and 11 deaths," the president tweeted Thursday as new cases were announced on US soil. "We are working very hard to keep these numbers as low as possible!"

Minutes later, about a mile away on Capitol Hill, Ms Pelosi said she is pleased "the reality is in the public domain," referring to how the White House pandemic team was shut down. She also called on officials to work at "recognising we were on a path that was not working" while also putting more effort into "not blaming others."

In yet another sign of just how little the two parties agree on, Ms Pelosi defended the Obama administration's handling of the ebola crisis, calling it "picture perfect" and applauding Mr Trump's predecessor's decision then to "put scientists in place so we could really evaluate the epidemiology."

But back in 2014, citizen Trump was a frequent critic of how Mr Obama responded to that outbreak. In a 28 October tweet that year, the then-New York real estate executive and reality television host tweeted this: "President Obama strongly considering a plan to bring non-U.S. citizens with Ebola to the United States for treatment. Now I know he's nuts!"