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 "horrible choice" of protecting their health or exercising their right to vote. She hopes the presidential election is not postponed and believes that if these steps are taken it shouldn't have to be.  Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. Valerie Jarrett served as a senior advisor to President Barack Obama for his entire eight years in office and is a close friend and confidant of both the former president and first lady. 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?

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See Also:

• The UK has backed Trump's call for an investigation into China's role in the coronavirus outbreak
• The UK is on course to suffer the highest coronavirus death toll in all of Europe
• Trump says China's handling of the coronavirus is part of a plot to make him lose reelection

SEE ALSO: Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman says we are ignoring a 'huge fiscal time bomb' set to detonate when the pandemic subsides

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