Recounts his time at the secretary of the Veterans Affairs department for the Trump Administration. Hes interviewed by jeremy butler. After words is a weekly interview program. They are also available to listen to as podcasts. Thank you for being with us today the v. A. Is an important subject to talk about one area of our government that dont necessarily know one of the details. Those that dont understand the breadth and the depth. Certainly about your book and your time of the administration. I would love to begin talking about the v. A. You are very successful with a civilian career making the transition from the civilian world into the government world can be jarring what would you to take up the mantle of work . During my twenties i didnt have a chance to serve in the way that you did. I spent my time in medical institutions building my medical training and one of the real regrets that i would have but later on in my career i was the ceo of the hospital and i had the opportunity t
Unthermal nuclear war. It was a big deal at the time. And so now to go back and listen to what has happened to Nuclear Weapons from truman to trump is, is really, really remarkable. Our author grew up in the midwest in kansas, went to Oberlin College thinking he was going to be a lut major lit major, but watergate changed him to political science. And then he went on to graduate school at mit, and it was International Relations and Nuclear Strategy. Then he moved to washington as a defense policy adviser for the house of representatives. But, you know, government work being what it is, he decided that wasnt for him. So after a couple of years he left and wrote his really widelyacclaimed book the wizards of armageddon an inside history of Nuclear Strategy. He then spent time, he joined the boston globe because they were looking for experts in defense and that sort of thing and stayed with the boston globe for 20 years. He was bureau chief in moscow, bureau chief in new york city. By the
A term we have heard talking about essential frontline federal employees. Give us an idea of who some of those employees are. What are their jobs . Guest some of those employees would be tsa. Some of our Veterans Administration workers. Would be some of our prison workers. Some of those would be essential personnel. Guest what are you hearing from those frontline workers during the crisis . Guest more than anything is , protection. They feel that they are inadequately protected. While they have to and they want to do their job, just want to be protected. Our main concern is making sure that those employees that we represent are protected. Host do you have any idea of how many of your members have contracted covid19 . Guest i dont really have an accurate number. I do know that within the tsa is about 170 so far and in the Veterans Administration, i think the last count i had was about 189. Can i give you a little background of why we feel so strongly about the fact we need the protectio
Economically but really to the health crisis. Is norancine, there question about the extension of the virus. The cases of the virus are rolling over, but i will tell you, if you look at it graphically, it is ever so slight. The dawning awareness here in the pandemic in the last when he four hours is a primal scream for testing. In the last 24 hours is a primal scream for testing. There is a new awareness that Going Forward we need testing, and that is not so much to get people back to work but to stop the job losses. Remember, we have jobless claims this morning at 8 30. Francine what you are talking about is two different tests, right . Both i hear more and more people calling for action, testing on whether you have covid and testing on whether you had it and have developed antibodies. Thats get to first word news in new york city. Lets get to first word news in new york city with evian hurtado. Viviana President Trump will a lack will talk today about whether to relax guidelines. He
We are watching President Trump sign that stimulus bill. It to trillion dollar package. 2 trillion is actual money. Steven mnuchin says that injection will happen as fast as he can do it. Here we are. Trillion stimulus bill. We have about 6 trillion of a cushion to help cushion this blow. I want to bring in emily chang. Emily the president signing that 2 trillion stimulus bill. This is something that markets have been waiting for, investors have been waiting for. Every day americans are waiting for another big day when it comes to the number of cases. Italy reporting almost 1000 deaths in just 24 hours. The u. S. Now has more cases than any other country in the world. You have been covering the whipsaw in the markets. A very down day today. What happens. We ended the day down. You have to give it the context of the entire week. You had the biggest one gate one day gain on tuesday. Some of that got unraveled today. There was a sense that even with the rebound, we have not seen the botto