Kushner heads his own COVID-19 task force. Nepotism or needed?
It’s been dubbed a “shadow task force” by some White House officials, since meetings and email communications are entirely private.
Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and a senior White House advisor, has been running his own COVID-19 task force behind the scenes.
And that’s about all he wants you to know.
The team, comprised of his personal allies and private sector representatives, was initially pursuing expanded testing in hotspot areas, including Seattle and New York City. Kushner’s goal was to speed up decision-making and testing implementation processes, involving discussions with FedEx and UPS leaders to allow retailers — think Walmart — to start testing for the virus.
But there are lots of questions about the legitimacy of the team, especially since representatives from those external companies (and more) are sending emails from private email addresses, which undermines some of the standard security measures that accompany government procedures. Senior government officials outside the task force are confused by the emails from people whose corporate and political roles officials aren’t sure of.
And people are confused as to which team is in charge: Kushner seems to be working on testing while Vice President Mike Pence — who was appointed to lead the official coronavirus task force long before Kushner birthed his — appears to be taking a broader approach.
Though he is supposedly trying to help, Kushner’s messages have been all but supportive to states. He has been criticized for suggesting that governors don’t know what their states need, claiming they are requesting resources out of fear instead of a quantifiable approach. It peaked during a press briefing in early April; Kushner defended the White House’s lack of action and aid in supplying resources to manage the pandemic, including personal protection equipment and ventilators.
“And the notion of the federal stockpile was it’s supposed to be our stockpile,” Kushner said. “It’s not supposed to be states’ stockpiles that they then use.”
But at the time, the national stockpile was specifically described as a resource to state and local governments during public health emergencies by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services website.
No problem. The department changed the description to fit his the next day, Washington Post reporters found.
An overall lack of documentation and public information makes it difficult to determine the efficiency — and legality — of the task force, or even why it exists.
Questions? Ask us at contact@govsight.co.
Like what you read but prefer to learn with your ears? Listen to The Insight Podcast by GovSight on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Podbean every Monday.
Follow GovSight on Twitter @GovSight1, Instagram @govsight and Facebook @GovSight. Go to govsight.com to see how GovSight is making “Citizenship. Simplified.”
