United States U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power speaks during her final press conference, Friday, Jan. 13, 2017 at U.N. headquarters. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)

One of the hallmarks of the Obama administration was toadying to other countries, with Barack Obama not wanting to offend anyone but wanting to be embraced no matter how much he had to bend over to achieve that.

Another characteristic, perhaps also an outgrowth of that desire not to offend, meant that Obama virtually never pulled the trigger in any conflict. Which meant that problems were simply ignored or allowed to get worse while they sat, pondering what to do.

Obama was warned that he should take out ISIS while he could. when they were emerging. Instead he pulled out, did nothing, allowing them to establish a state and kill thousands of people through war and terrorism.

Obama drew a redline in the sand in Syria over chemical weapons. Then allowed them to kick sand all over him and do nothing in response. Again, thousands then died.

Now, while Obama hasn’t weighed in on what he would be doing in this pandemic, we can look to the members of his administration and their actions to envision what he would have done.

First we had Joe Biden, who suggested after President Donald Trump cut travel to China, that the president was being xenophobic. His team claims now in April that that isn’t what he meant. But he also seemed to spread against cutting travel from Europe, saying banning it wouldn’t stop the virus. So would they ever have even restricted travel? They didn’t during the swine flu pandemic. And they depleted the mask supply from the stockpile and never replenished them.

Now most Americans at this point understand that China lied and tried to cover the virus up. They are also aware of the part that WHO played in that, spreading China’s lie about the virus not being able to spread human to human on Jan.14 and then WHO later in the month, saying there didn’t need to be any restrictions on travel. Fortunately, Trump didn’t agree with that and cut travel with China anyway. Meanwhile WHO spread all kinds of ridiculous propaganda about the “openness” and “transparency” of the Chinese response, making it clear that they’re more concerned about their standing with China than delivering truth to the rest of the world, the thing that’s supposed to be their job.

Trump rightly said this week that there needs to be a reckoning and said he would look at pulling money from WHO. They, and China, have a lot to answer for. The U.S. is the top donor to the WHO, giving it more than $400 million in 2019, according to the State Department. Yet, they’ve thrown us under the bus in all this, while catering to the Chinese who officially have only given them $44 million.

So one has to ask if there’s more going on there. Some members of the GOP are demanding answers from WHO head Tedros and want to have him testify to Congress.

Now one of Obama’s principle foreign policy people, Samantha Power, is weighing in on the President Donald Trump’s criticism of the World Health Organization. Her reaction shows a window into that the Obama reaction would have been. Is she taking supporting our position? Nope, she’s siding with the lies of WHO.

Trump has put in place a de facto hold on funds to the @who, requiring agencies to obtain what appears to be ⁦@WhiteHouse⁩ clearance, which will cause needless delays & mean cuts at the worst possible time. A thread on why this is sheer madness: https://t.co/wyfOZR2dwQ

— Samantha Power (@SamanthaJPower) April 9, 2020

How dare Trump actually hold them accountable!

See my @Nytimes op-Ed on how walls can’t protect us from large-scale outbreak in developing countries, as we are linked via family ties, global supply chains, and trading relations: https://t.co/zdtXzVskiC

— Samantha Power (@SamanthaJPower) April 9, 2020

As I tweeted at the time, it was hugely problematic for @WHO to flatter Chinese officials for their response to #COVID when Beijing was in fact covering up vital info and denying other countries, @CDCgov & @WHO the thorough access & knowledge they needed to prepare. But Trump…

— Samantha Power (@SamanthaJPower) April 9, 2020

The problem wasn’t flattering them, the problem was spreading their lies when they had reason to know better, they’d already been told by Taiwan it was communicable on Dec. 31. Yet they put out the false statement parroting China on Jan. 14, then didn’t discourage travel. Not recognizing that is missing critical information that the Trump team isn’t ignoring. While Trump had flattering words, he also called Xi out for China’s actions. Even now, WHO has not done so, which means they have no legitimacy when it comes to China.

By the way, Samantha, Trump has the highest approval rating of his presidency. So his approval has actually gone up, despite constant media attack.

Power then has the temerity to blame Trump for WHO’s delay and covering for China.

As was true w/Ebola, @WHO was VERY late in declaring global emergency, doing so only March 11. But part of what was (wrongly) influencing WHO was Trump who was then still downplaying the virus. On March 9, after 22 US deaths, Trump cited “common flu” says to minimize C19 risk…

— Samantha Power (@SamanthaJPower) April 9, 2020

So they’re late again, screwed up as before, but somehow it’s Trump’s fault for their failings, just keep funneling the money to them. Trump had already declared a public health emergency in January, in addition to cutting travel and forming the task force so suggest he was downplaying it in March is just not the reality.

…although it now feels like a decade ago, it was only on March 16 (5 days AFTER @WHO emergency declaration) that Trump announced new social distancing guidelines, warned the outbreak could last until July or August, and said he told his son who asked how bad it was, “It’s bad.“

— Samantha Power (@SamanthaJPower) April 9, 2020

Just when developing nations are abt to be ravaged beyond anything we’ve seen yet, Trump thinks attacks on @WHO will help improve his falling domestic standing. In fact, US mobilization of international cooperation is the only way this ends at home. WHO cuts make that far harder.

— Samantha Power (@SamanthaJPower) April 9, 2020

Correction: see caps – “..WHO was very late in declaring PANDEMIC, doing so only March 11..” & “WHO’s belated PANDEMIC declaration.” Rushing, I wrote “emergency” instead, which of course WHO declared Jan 30, signaling C19 “potentially require[d] a coordinated internatl response.”

— Samantha Power (@SamanthaJPower) April 10, 2020

What utter nonsense and toadying for WHO. Her first concern should be how their actions helped to infect that world and the United States, and stopping that from happening again. She herself admits they’ve failed before during the Obama regime. Yet she doesn’t call for any sanctions or change. Perhaps because she and the Obama administration did nothing about them before, we are left where we are now.