VIDEO: Andy Kim Talks COVID-19 National Security Ramifications, Next Steps Live on MSNBC

MARLTON, NJ — This morning, Congressman Andy Kim joined Ali Velshi live on MSNBC to discuss the national security ramifications of the coronavirus outbreak in the White House. Touching on his time as a National Security Council staffer, he described the importance of having a crystal clear chain of command in moments of crisis like this one.

On what’s needed next, Andy said, “We need to make sure that this moment hopefully now becomes a unifying moment for our country, where we rally around the tried and true public health techniques that everyone has been talking about over and over again, of social distancing, wearing a mask, that you cannot have this testing only strategy that the White House has put forward. That is something where we need to make sure we have the humility to understand just how vulnerable we are. And hopefully this will be a galvanizing moment for our country to now push forward together and have that concentrated singular strategy and response.”

Read the full transcript below

Ali Velshi: Congressman Andy Kim of New Jersey. In addition to being on the Armed Services and Small Business committees, Congressman Kim is a member of the Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis. Congressman Kim, by the way, has extensive national security credentials. He worked at the State Department, served as a civilian advisor to General Patraeus and Allen in Afghanistan. He worked as a national security advisor and a member of the National Security Council in the Obama administration, and it is in that capacity that I’ve invited you here this morning Congressman Kim. In addition to the fact that you’re a congressman and you know a lot about coronavirus, there is a national security element to the idea that in the last 24 hours, I have tweeted that an advisor to the president, a counselor to the president, the president, the president’s wife, and three United States senators have all contracted coronavirus from events that we can probably trace over the course of the last seven days. At some juncture, Congressmen, this starts moving into the category of, is there a national security problem here with so many top level people in our government being felled by an entirely preventable disease?

Andy Kim: Yeah. Thank you Ali for having me. You’re absolutely right. This is something that we have to pay a lot of attention to. As someone who worked at the White House before on the National Security Council, I know it is so important. We base our lives and our decision making and our efforts around the President of the United States and where he is, what time zone he is, what the next schedule he is following. So it’s so important that this chain of command is crystal clear and that the staff, the White House at the Pentagon and elsewhere, know exactly what to do. We know that we have many threats that we are facing as a country and we cannot let our guard down. Let me,

Ali Velshi: I ask you this. We were just, Dr. Bhadelia and I we’re just talking about the treatment regimen for the president. And again, I don’t think you’d get a lot of objection from anybody, no matter where you stand on the political spectrum, that senior people in government are essential and we should do everything that we can to keep them healthy. It’s a different debate as to whether we should have those things available for every American. I believe we should. But more importantly, we weren’t- these people who have said that they are positive for coronavirus were not doing the basics. You would think that if you’re trying to keep the leader of the free world safe that he would, if the rest of us have to wash our hands often he should wash his hands all the time; if the rest of us need to stay six feet away, he should say 60 feet away; if the rest of us should wear mask, he should always wear a mask. But on Tuesday he accused Joe Biden that wearing the biggest mask there is when he’s 200 feet away from people that they, I don’t want to say anybody deserve this, but there were obvious ways to prevent the transmission of this disease.

Andy Kim: And that’s something that I hope we take from this moment that when we recognize and see that the most protected building in our country was penetrated by this virus, that we know how no one here is invincible. We need to make sure that this moment hopefully now becomes a unifying moment for our country, where we rally around the tried and true public health techniques that everyone has been talking about over and over again, of social distancing, wearing a mask, that you cannot have this testing only strategy that the White House has put forward. That is something where we need to make sure we have the humility to understand just how vulnerable we are. And hopefully this will be a galvanizing moment for our country to now push forward together and have that concentrated singular strategy and response.

Ali Velshi: I guess my question to you is why do you think it will happen? Logic would dictate that that’s true, this should be a turning point. But this White House and this administration has been acting like this isn’t a serious problem. Despite 210,000 dead Americans, despite 7 million people with the infection, despite an additional 50,000 who got this infection yesterday and additional 1,000 who died, I know what you think should happen. Do you think there’s any likelihood that that happens that suddenly America takes this thing more seriously from the top down and that we have a proper all of government response.

Andy Kim: I like how you phrase the Ali, that you’re talking about, can I explain why it would happen? And honestly, I can’t. But what I have to say is that it must happen. We have to make sure that this happens. We have over 200,000 lost. We are fearing a second wave of this virus. I know in New Jersey we’re very concerned about that. Even in my district we’re starting to see some increases there. So we have to as a country rally around and I just really hope that leadership across the board, the White House, and everywhere else use this as a pivot point to make sure that we are doing that. If not, we will continue to see that death toll increased. I heard it from Secretary Azar yesterday. I hear it from others. Now we have to have actions, not just words.

Ali Velshi: Well, I hope the national security establishment is having this discussion this morning, because if we’re not going to think about it for political reasons, at least think about it from a national security perspective. Thank you. Democratic Congressman Andy Kim of New Jersey.