US President Joe Biden has been called out for hypocrisy after slapping a travel ban on eight African countries — a move he called Donald Trump "racist" for last year.
Biden called Trump "racist" and "xenophobic" in February 2020 after the then-president issued an executive order extending travel restrictions on a list of eight countries to six more, including the African nations of Eritrea, Sudan, and Tanzania.
"The 'Muslim Ban', this new 'African Ban', Trump’s atrocious asylum and refugee policies — they are all designed to make it harder for black and brown people to immigrate to the United States", Biden said at the time. "And there is no evidence that they do anything to make us safer".
Trump had previously removed Sudan from his original 2017 order, but left Somalia on the list of predominantly-Muslim countries and later added Chad, along with North Korea and Venezuela. The 2020 order also included Kyrgyzstan and Myanmar in Asia.
Democrats tried several times to have the federal and Supreme courts overturn the orders, unsuccessfully.
Biden rescinded Trump's travel restrictions on those countries after being sworn in on 6 January this year — but on Friday banned travel to and from South Africa and seven neighbouring states on the basis of the newly-designated Omicron variant of COVID-19.
Twitter Republicans, often compared to elephants for their long memories, helpfully reminded the forgetful president of his comments almost two years ago.