Listening in washington and around the country and around the world. I am mike ohanlon at the Brookings Institution. We are honored to host mark esper who, after being introduced by my boss, retired general john allen, he will offer remarks on how the covid19 is affecting the armed forces and anything else. I will ask questions and then i will hear from you. If you have not already submitted your welcome to do so. Apologies that we may not get to all questions. Ado, let me hand the body the baton to john allen. Good morning. My name is john allen and i am the president of the Brookings Institution and it is my great pledge to welcome you all to , featuring dr. Mark esper. Esper was sworn in as the 22nd secretary of defense on 2019. 0 323, he served as a secretary of the toy from november 20, 2017 the summer of 2019. He is no stranger to service. He is a 1986 west point graduate and upon graduation he was commissioned in the infantry and that makes at least two infantrymen on this call.
Militarys testing capability, and chinas response to the pandemic. Good afternoon, everyone. The seats are starting to fill up. Good. I want to begin by expressing my gratitude to the more than 62,000 Service Members on the front lines in the fight against the coronavirus, including over 3500 medical personnel staffing civilian facilities and embedded operations nationwide. Tomorrow marks the start of National Nurses week. We salute all nurses, military and civilian, who have served and are currently serving. Thanks to their efforts, we are encouraged to see the situation improving in several of the most impacted areas. In new york city, the Javits Centers remaining patients were discharged on friday, indicating stress on hospitals is subsiding. I had a conversation with mayor de blasio last friday. He called to express his thanks for what dod provided his city in a time of need and how warmly they were received by his civilian doctors and nurses. I said to pass along to the force, tho
Civilian facilities and embedded operations nationwide. Tomorrow marks the start of National Nurses week. We salute all nurses, military and civilian, who have served and are currently serving. Thanks to their efforts, we are encouraged to see the situation improving in several of the most impacted areas. In new york city, the Javits Centers remaining patients were discharged on friday, indicating stress on hospitals is subsiding. I had a conversation with mayor de blasio last friday. He called to express his thanks for what dod provided his city in a time of need and how warmly they were received by his civilian doctors and nurses. I said to pass along to the force, those who may be watching may get a readout from this briefing. Over the weekend, the comfort returned to norfolk, virginia, where it will be prepared to deploy as needed. In pennsylvania, the temple alternate care facility discharged remaining patients, while facilities in louisiana and texas are returning to Naval Air St
The seats are starting to fill up. Good. I want to begin by expressing my gratitude to the more than 62,000 Service Members on the front lines in the fight against the coronavirus, including over 3500 medical personnel staffing civilian facilities and embedded operations nationwide. Tomorrow marks the start of National Nurses week. We salute all nurses, military and civilian, who have served and are currently serving. Thanks to their efforts, we are encouraged to see the situation improving in several of the most impacted areas. In new york city, the Javits Centers remaining patients were discharged on friday, indicating stress on hospitals is subsiding. I had a conversation with mayor de blasio last friday. He called to express his thanks for what dod provided his city in a time of need and how warmly they were received by his civilian doctors and nurses. I said to pass along to the force, those who may be watching may get a readout from this briefing. Over the weekend, the comfort re
Cycle during that period. We havent spoken a great deal about impeachment. I am curious as to the decision to take questions. This was originally scheduled as an address to the nation. Now it is turning into a press conference. Why . Kevin that is how the president prefers that. You saw a preview of it at the state Department Yesterday with secretary pompeo. The president and Administration Officials and private conversations, and what i would predict to be increasingly public conversations over the next day or so, are going to push back on the notion that the strike against soleimani was not the right course of action. This is someone that even democrats have noted is someone who is a bad actor. The democrats are saying they disagree with how the administration conducted it. The president has suggested that new evidence is going to be released that will illustrate why he ultimately made that decision, and we could get a foreshadowing of that in just a few minutes as we await the presi