Coronavirus, Power & Security Trump's national security adviser out of sight in coronavirus response

Perry World House Director of Communications and Research John Gans is quoted in this CNN piece on the conspicuous absence of National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien during the coronavirus pandemic.

"Historically you would see the national security adviser being in on this action, really, since day one," said John Gans Jr., a former chief Pentagon speechwriter and author of the book "White House Warriors: How the National Security Council Transformed the American Way of War."

"I think there's a lot of people in Washington who are just like: Where's the national security adviser been in all this?"

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Countless Trump advisers, past and present, have said that the President doesn't give his Presidential Daily Briefings a close read and it is generally up to his top advisers to flag important issues to him. The onus, therefore, according to several former national security officials who spoke with CNN, was on O'Brien to fill the gaps.

"He's got to help connect the dots within government and help connect the dots between the information," said Gans, the former Pentagon speechwriter and author. "This is the first major crisis of the post-World War II era where the NSC really hasn't been operating and engaging at full capacity."

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