Barack Obama, the former President of the United States, will celebrate his 60th birthday this Wednesday, August 4.
For the occasion, his family is organizing a sumptuous reception, bringing together around 500 guests in their 640 m² home on the upscale island of Martha's Vineyard (State of Massachusetts).
Steven Spielberg, Oprah Winfrey and George Clooney are among the guests.
An army of 200 employees will take care of themselves and a private concert by rock group Pearl Jam is also planned.
Read alsoBooks, conferences, contract with Netflix ... the juicy Obama business
But before walking through the door, each guest will need to show proof of vaccination or a negative PCR test.
The party will take place outside and will even be supervised by a “Covid coordinator”, a health professional who will ensure compliance with barrier gestures.
In addition, the island of Martha's Vineyard showed only a moderate level of transmission of the virus on Monday, according to data from the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention).
The circulation of the virus is not sufficiently high there to trigger the activation of the new recommendations of the health authorities, namely the wearing of the mask indoors even for vaccinated people.
All of these precautions were not enough to quell the critics.
On Twitter, the Republican camp tastes little of the opulence of the event in a context of epidemic recovery in the United States.
"If it was President Trump's birthday party" ...
Republican elected official Jim Jordan, a loyal supporter of Donald Trump, remarks that "if it was President Trump's birthday party", Democrats would have been quick to denounce a "dangerous super-propagator" of the virus and would conclude that the organizers of such a rally "kill people".
“This is a dangerous super-spreader event.”
“How can someone be so reckless?”
“They're killing people.”
-The things Democrats would say if this was President Trump's birthday party.
https://t.co/TREe5jKCpI
- Rep.
Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) August 2, 2021
"Does Biden have a comment on Obama's giant birthday party as he tightens health restrictions?"
Or is there an exception for parties attended by wealthy liberal celebrities?
Asks the leader of the Republican Party, Ronna McDaniel.
Does Biden have any comment on Obama throwing a massive birthday bash as he pushes for more COVID restrictions?
Or is there an exception for parties attended by rich liberal celebrities?
- Ronna McDaniel (@GOPChairwoman) August 2, 2021
White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki tried to put down the controversy. "The former president, who supports vaccination and respecting the advice of public health experts, is certainly applying it to himself, too," she said. Current President Joe Biden is not expected to attend.