Behind the scenes, Kushner takes charge of coronavirus response

Source: Politico | April 1, 2020 | Adam Cancryn and Dan Diamond

Trump’s son-in-law sets up shop at FEMA as his portfolio balloons to include manufacturing, supplies and long-term planning.

Dozens of Trump administration officials have trooped to the White House podium over the last two months to brief the public on their effort to combat coronavirus, but one person who hasn’t — Jared Kushner — has emerged as perhaps the most pivotal figure in the national fight against the fast-growing pandemic.

What started two-and-a-half weeks ago as an effort to utilize the private sector to fix early testing failures has become an all-encompassing portfolio for Kushner, who, alongside a kitchen cabinet of outside experts including his former roommate and a suite of McKinsey consultants, has taken charge of the most important challenges facing the federal government: Expanding test access, ramping up industry production of needed medical supplies, and figuring out how to get those supplies to key locations.

Kushner has even obtained a new center of power at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the crisis-response organization that’s taken over coronavirus strategy and planning — and where Kushner and his deputies ride herd on the health agencies that had been criticized for their slow responses to the pandemic earlier this year.

Kushner’s group, which some have characterized as an “all-of-private-sector” operation in contrast to Vice President Mike Pence’s “all-of-government” task force, has had its successes – including airlifting emergency medical supplies to the United States, crowdsourcing mask and glove donations, and rapidly devising a last-ditch plan for hospitals to maximize ventilators.

But the behind-the-scenes working group has also duplicated existing federal teams and operations, and its focus on rapid, short-term decisions has created concern among some health-agency officials, according to interviews with 11 people involved in Kushner’s effort, including senior government officials, outside advisers and volunteers on the projects, as well as other health department and White House officials.

Federal decision-making is complicated by the fact that Kushner has the full confidence of President Donald Trump, with whom he confers multiple times a day, while Trump has expressed frustration with some of the leaders of health agencies.

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  • Discussion
  • Consistent April 1, 2020 at 10:43 pm #37847

    Consistent April 1, 2020 at 11:00 pm #37849

    Consistent April 1, 2020 at 11:13 pm #37850

    Consistent April 2, 2020 at 6:42 pm #37866

    Consistent April 2, 2020 at 7:01 pm #37867

    Consistent April 2, 2020 at 8:40 pm #37870

    Consistent April 2, 2020 at 11:56 pm #37877

    Consistent April 3, 2020 at 12:18 am #37881

    Consistent April 3, 2020 at 12:29 am #37883

    Consistent April 3, 2020 at 12:31 am #37884

    EVERYDAY April 3, 2020 at 3:11 pm #37890

    So Jared is in charge of something connected to the virus. Now will Ivanka be put in charge of designing surgical masks to make them chic and fashionable?

    People, this president and everyone else connected to this outbreak really don’t give a flying fig about us. This outbreak is being used to advance careers, give the Trump kids something to do, score political points and to provide an opportunity for politicians and the private sector alike to point fingers at each other. Chances are if I should end up in the hospital with this virus, I likely won’t come out alive and not because of the virus itself, but because no one is fully equipped to handle the outbreak. We, the people, are on our own.

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