The huge birthday bash being promoted for Barack Obama’s 60th is being toned down because of the ongoing developments with COVID-19, the deadly virus that is believed to have come from a Chinese lab doing experiments in Wuhan.
Just the News explained the event is set for Saturday at his multi-million dollar megamansion on Martha’s Vineyard off Massachusetts’ coast.
Ultra-rich celebrities including Oprah Winfrey and George Clooney were expected, along with “donors” and those who worked with him in the White House for eight years of “transformation” of America, as he promised.
Plans now apparently are, instead of some 500 fans and 200 servants, for a smaller event with family and “close friends.”
“Due to the new spread of the Delta variant over the past week, the president and Mrs. Obama have decided to significantly scale back the event to include only family and close friends,” said Hannah Hankins, a spokeswoman for Obama.
Obama spent nearly $12 million on the home after he left office to spend summers there.
There reportedly were “safety” measures that were to be used, including holding events outdoors and demanding guests be vaccinated.
President Biden, who was Obama’s vice president, was not planning to attend.
The purchase of the home itself created controversy because of Obama’s tenure-long campaign to make global warming – or climate change as it’s called since global warming declined – something the government should spend money on.
Reports confirmed Climate Central, a research group funded by the government during the Obama administration, projects the Obamas’ mansion to be well underwater in its “Extreme Scenario 2100” model.
Their sudden acquisition of massive amounts of money also raised eyebrows.
Newsweek noted, “There are valid reasons to be concerned by a president’s earnings, including after their tenure in the Oval Office. Where a former commander-in-chief earns his or her income–and the company they choose to keep after serving as the leader of the free world–could speak to their basic values in a way policies and legislation cannot.
“So when some Americans, including Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, saw former President Barack Obama accepting $400,000 speeches from Wall Street, signing book deals worth $65 million and vacationing with billionaires off the coast of Tahiti in a $300 million yacht, you can bet they were perplexed.”
The report said, “How could it be that Obama, the smooth-talking Democratic candidate in 2008 who slammed Wall Street greed and resonated with the working class in a way his party has since been unable to authentically recreate, is living his post-presidential life like an elitist one percenter?”
In fact, he’s reached contract deals for tens of millions of dollars for books, movie projects and more.
The concerns were amplified by his decision to rake in $400,000 for a single, 90-minute interview.
“I was troubled by that,” Warren said.
The report said, “Obama once told his supporters he wasn’t tied up in corporate interests or the snake-like stronghold bankers and investment firms seem to have over many elected officials in the U.S.”
Obama, in fact, said, “I did not run for office to be helping out a bunch of fat cat bankers on Wall Street.”
Newsweek said, “Maybe that Obama should have a talk with 2017 Obama.”
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