Joe Biden picks White House veteran, Ron Klain as chief of staff
London, Nov. 12, 2020 (AltAfrica)-Ron Klain, a senior campaign advisor for Joe Biden and one-time top aide for the former vice president, is set to become the president-elect’s first White House chief of staff, the Biden campaign announced Wednesday night.
Klain was Biden’s chief of staff when he was vice president and also served as chief of staff to vice president Al Gore. By tapping Klain to lead his White House, Biden has chosen a Washington veteran with experience fighting the Ebola outbreak just as the new president makes ending the COVID-19 pandemic his top priority.
Ron Klain’s deep, varied experience and capacity to work with people all across the political spectrum is precisely what I need in a White House chief of staff as we confront this moment of crisis and bring our country together again. https://t.co/s4XlAgMrxf
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) November 12, 2020
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The hire, the first made by Biden for his new administration, marks another step toward his White House transition as President Donald Trump contests election results with baseless claims of voter fraud
Klain, 59, a close confidant of Biden, had long been rumored for the post even before the election. He served as a senior White House aide to President Barack Obama and was tapped by Obama in 2014 to serve as a “czar” to combat the Ebola outbreak – experience that Biden will lean on as he works to slow down the coronavirus pandemic.
As Biden’s chief of staff, a position he held from 2009 to 2011, Klain had a key role in implementing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 following the Great Recession
“Ron has been invaluable to me over the many years that we have worked together, including as we rescued the American economy from one of the worst downturns in our history in 2009 and later overcame a daunting public health emergency in 2014,” Biden said in a statement Wednesday night.
“His deep, varied experience and capacity to work with people all across the political spectrum is precisely what I need in a White House chief of staff as we confront this moment of crisis and bring our country together again.”
