Obama's former advisor Valerie Jarrett talks about Trump's 'flat-footed' response to the pandemic and why we need to let more people vote early and by mail
President Obama's former senior advisor and close friend, Valerie Jarrett, says during the transition they tried to prepare to the Trump administration for the possibility of a deadly pandemic. But instead of being prepared, Jarrett says, 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 to control the outbreak. Better coordination within and outside of the country would have made a huge impact on America's ability to effectively control and treat COVID-19, according to Jarrett. Adding 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 the ...