Obama’s former adviser Valerie Jarrett talks about Trump’s ‘flat-footed’ response to the pandemic and advocates letting more people vote early and by mail

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Valerie Jarrett, a close friend of Barack Obama who served as a senior adviser when he was president, says that during the transition Obama’s staff tried to prepare to the Trump administration for the possibility of a disease pandemic. But Jarrett says that instead of being prepared, the Trump administration was caught “flat-footed” and wasted critical time.
Jarrett says the time lost in the early days of the pandemic made it impossible for the US to use contact tracing for containment. She says better coordination within and outside the country would have made a huge impact on America’s ability to effectively control and treat COVID-19.
She adds that this is “where diplomatic relations really matter, coordination of relationships, nonpartisan relationships with state and local elected officials matter, and a good pulse of where the business community is.”
Jarrett is pushing to expand early voting, voting by mail, and online voter registration so people will not have to make what she calls the “horrible choice” of protecting their health or exercising their right to vote in November.
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Valerie Jarrett book cover finding my voice Valerie Jarrett served as a senior adviser to President Barack Obama for his entire eight years in office and is a close friend and confidante of both the former president and the first lady Michelle Obama. She is also the author of “Finding My Voice: When the Perfect Plan Crumbles, the Adventure Begins,” which was released on paperback April 14.

Jarrett, who The New York Times calls “the ultimate Obama insider,” sat down with Business Insider to discuss America’s response to the coronavirus pandemic and what to expect for the 2020 election. Following is a transcript of the video.

Sara Silverstein: You have been around for many crises at the White House. For those of us that haven’t gotten to be behind closed doors, what is really happening that we don’t get to see or understand during something like this?See the rest of the story at Business Insider