IE 11 Not Supported

For optimal browsing, we recommend Chrome, Firefox or Safari browsers.

Coronavirus: Who Will Trump Fire First?

Someone must suffer the consequences for failure.

It is a maxim I followed as a local emergency management director for a large county. If things went terribly wrong, it would be my head on a pike outside the entrance door to the county courthouse as a warning to others who might screw up.

Which made me think about whose head might end up on the chopping block within the federal presidential administration. While Vice President Pence has been appointed to lead the national effort, you can't fire the vice president! You might not pick him to be your running mate for 2020.

The real candidate who should be concerned about his future is HHS Secretary Alex Azar. When the chickens come home to roost, with testing kit troubles exposed to the public and the finger pointing begins — it won't be the CDC who marches up the stairs to see the guy swinging the ax. 

I give him another six to eight weeks. 

Eric Holdeman is a contributing writer for Emergency Management magazine and is the former director of the King County, Wash., Office of Emergency Management.