What the Pentagon Knew About the Coronavirus—in 2017

What the Pentagon Knew About the Coronavirus—in 2017

Ken Klippenstein on the military, Amy Wilentz on Jared Kushner, and Laila Lalami on The Other Americans.

Start Making Sense and Jon Wiener
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The Pentagon warned the White House about a shortage of ventilators, face masks, and hospital beds in 2017, according to a document obtained by Ken Klippenstein, The Nation’s Washington correspondent—but of course Trump ignored the warning.

Also: Jared Kusher has a new job on the White House coronavirus task force. His vast responsibilities include weighing requests from governors for aid and coordinating with private companies to obtain medical equipment. Meanwhile Ivanka is at home, reading The Odyssey and playing the guitar. Amy Wilentz comments—she’s our chief Jared correspondent.

Plus: Nation columnist Laila Lalami talks about her novel The Other Americans—it’s about the suspicious death of a Moroccan immigrant in a small town in California. It’s a family saga, a murder mystery, and a love story. And it’s out now in paperback.

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Editorial Director and Publisher, The Nation

Start Making Sense Start Making Sense is The Nation’s podcast, hosted by Jon Wiener and coproduced by the Los Angeles Review of Books. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts for new episodes each Thursday.  


Jon Wiener Jon Wiener is a contributing editor of The Nation and co-author (with Mike Davis) of Set the Night on Fire: L.A. in the Sixties.


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