Former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security and politician Janet Napolitano weighs in on the governments lack of urgency in response to COVID-19. Yahoo Finance’s Melody Hahm weighs in on the details.

Video Transcript

JULIE HYMAN: You're watching Yahoo Finance live. I'm Julie Hyman. Sorry, I'm distracted by my child, as I'm sure many of you are as well. Our Melody Hahm had the chance to sit down with former governor of Arizona Janet Napolitano-- of course, she also served as the Homeland Security Secretary under President Obama. She talked about the current administration's performance.

JANET NAPOLITANO: One of the problems we've seen in this pandemic is the White House-- and by the White House I mean, really, the president-- has been all over the map. You know, first it was a little thing, then it was a hoax, and then it was a national emergency. And then people are supposed to rush out and get prescriptions for chloroquine, which is a medication that hasn't been tested against COVID-19 but is used for other conditions.

And the lack of coordination of the federal response-- the management of the federal stockpile, the implementation of the Defense Production Act, clear, consistent, persistent messaging from the leadership is really what the country needs. Empower people with knowledge and facts.

MELODY HAHM: Yeah. And of course, that's the general sense that we're getting, right, Julie, that people are looking to leaders. That's why folks like Governor Cuomo, Governor Newsom are sort of being elevated to the status that we haven't seen, at least in my lifetime, of a governor being treated with that kind of respect or, you know, there are viral things on Twitter right now-- Cuomosexual, just for this fascination that people have with their local leaders. And as you mentioned, Napolitano was actually the governor of Arizona.

And then when she was at the White House, she was on the task force in charge of mitigating the H1N1 flu and actually did a very good job at doing that. Of course, the flu is very different from the coronavirus. But overall, it was a very interesting and wide-ranging conversation about how she essentially believes that, unfortunately, we can't look to the White House for any sort of leadership, and we have to really be celebrating the local leaders in our communities.

JULIE HYMAN: Mel, thank you so much. Appreciate it.