'We'll all be dead by June!': Jared Kushner screamed at a health official after hearing about delayed mask shipments, according to new book
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Kushner reportedly grew so frustrated at news over mask shipments last year that he threw his pen at the wall.
"You f---ing moron," Kushner reportedly yelled at a health official. "We'll all be dead by June!"
The scene was detailed in a forthcoming book by two Washington Post reporters.
Jared Kushner lashed out at a public health official when he learned in late March 2020 that millions of masks wouldn't arrive in the US until June, according to an excerpt of a forthcoming book reported by The Washington Post on Monday.
"You f---ing moron," Kushner reportedly yelled at then-assistant secretary of the Health and Human Services Department, Robert Kadlec, who purchased 600 million masks as coronavirus infections had spiked across the country. "We'll all be dead by June!"
The scene was revealed in the new book, "Nightmare Scenario: Inside the Trump Administration's Response to the Pandemic That Changed History," by Washington Post reporters Yasmeen Abutaleb and Damian Paletta.
Kushner grew so frustrated that he threw his pen at the wall, the book reports. At the time, he had taken on greater responsibilities as senior advisor to former President Donald Trump, playing an influential role in the White House's COVID-19 response.
The book details many more chaotic moments of the Trump administration's coronavirus response, including another time when a Trump aide blew up at Kadlec.
"I'm going to fire your a-- if you can't fix this!" then-chief of staff Mark Meadows, upset at the administration's rollout of the new antiviral treatment remdesivir, reportedly shouted at Kadlec in a phone call.
The Washington Post reporters write that the handling of the pandemic had turned the Trump administration into "a toxic environment in which no matter where you turned, someone was ready to rip your head off or threatening to fire you."
The book also reported an instance in February last year when Trump questioned whether COVID-19 patients in the US could be sent to Guantánamo Bay.
"Don't we have an island that we own? What about Guantánamo?" Trump reportedly asked officials assembled in the Situation Room, who were shocked at the idea and dismissed it.
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