During an appearance on CNN’s “New Day,” national security expert Juliette Kayyem said the country would not be in the position it is in — people dying, schools shutting down, sporting events being canceled, people afraid to leave their homes due to the coronavirus pandemic — had Donald Trump allowed health officials to do their jobs.

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Speaking with hosts John Berman and Alisyn Camerota, the former analyst to the Homeland Security Advisory Council, noted being faced with her own children having to stay away from school before pointing the finger at the president for delaying testing.

With host Camerota asking if there should be an overriding federal response to the pandemic, Kayyem said it is now too late for that.

“We’re too big, there cannot be,” she began. “There will be pockets of hot zones so to speak. In Ohio, they had five cases but their public health officials were anticipating a lot more.”

“I cannot stress enough how this testing kit fiasco is the original and only sin because it doesn’t only impact public health it impacts homeland security planners,” she continued. “I’ve talked to a lot of governors and mayors: what’s the denominator and the enumerator? What are our numbers? Since they don’t know what they are you have to assume the worst.”

“Every planner is now … with imperfect information now has to assume that their resources are going to be stretched relatively quickly over the next two weeks is the trajectory we’re seeing,” she told the hosts. “That’s the original sin. It will continue through homeland security and I hate to say it, it will continue to figure out how we get back to normal. who is sick, who is not. But I will say with kids, don’t promise an end certain date and especially — everything is fine? Not everything is fine, be honest.”

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