On September 16, 2014, John Allen and I had just been appointed to lead the response to ISIS. We were days away from the first US-led airstrikes in Syria. Obama asked to see us in the Oval (photo) for a detailed review of the diplomatic plan. After this meeting, he traveled to... 
The CDC in Atlanta, which was leading a global response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Obama gave an update on the response, and it’s worth noting in comparison to what we’re now hearing and seeing from Trump on the #COVID19 outbreak. Link/excerpts👇obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-offi…
The demands on a presidency can seem impossible in real time. Over the course of a few hours — as was the case on this one afternoon — a president might need to discuss a pending military operation and then shift to oversee a government-wide and global response to an epidemic.
But that’s precisely why we have a professional civil service, scientists, career diplomats, and intelligence professionals, all of whom serve the public to reduce risks to our country and then help a president respond immediately and effectively when an inevitable crisis arises.
What’s inexcusable is an active three-year program to demean that entire system, hollow it out, ridicule it, even eliminate the pandemic response directorate in the NSC, but then feign surprise and ignorance when the test comes in year four of the presidency.
We’re all paying the price for this reckless disregard and it’s a problem across the federal government. The disastrous and haphazard response to #COVID19 is but a leading indicator of the systemic unraveling of institutions and national preparedness.
