Klain will bring virus-fighting expertise to chief of staff role
Ron Klain was once tapped by Democratic President Barack Obama to safeguard the United States from the threat of a lethal virus. As President-elect Joe Biden’s chief of staff, he will take on a similar mission.
In 2014, Obama named Klain to serve as the “Ebola Czar” after an outbreak in West Africa that ended up killing thousands around the globe. All in all, only 11 people were treated in the United States for the virus and two died.
Biden has made combating the resurgent coronavirus, which has killed more than 239,000 people in the United States, his top priority as he looks toward taking office in January. He tapped Klain as his chief of staff late on Wednesday, and the longtime adviser is expected to assume a leading role in crafting a Covid-19 action plan.
“Ron has been invaluable to me over the many years that we have worked together,” Biden said in a statement. “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.”
Klain, in a statement, called his selection “the honour of a lifetime.”
Biden has begun building his administration since clinching enough electoral votes to win the November 3 election. President Donald Trump, who has made unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud, has yet to concede and is pursuing legal challenges to try to overturn the results.
Klain, 59, functioned as an outside councillor to Biden during the campaign, particularly concerning the coronavirus, and spoke almost daily with the candidate, Klain has
said in media interviews.
He served as Biden’s top aide in the White House before, when Biden was vice-president under
Obama. He held the same job under Vice-President Al Gore during the Clinton administration.
Gore called Klain “a trusted and capable” adviser.
“He was always highly informed and his advice was always grounded in exceptional command of the policy process, the merits of the arguments, and the political and justice context,” the former vice president said.
Klain’s stint in the White House with Biden came during the fallout from the 2008-2009 financial crisis, when Biden was charged by Obama with overseeing implementation of the $787 billion Recovery Act to needy state and local governments.
Biden and Klain worked to ensure the money was directed to “shovelready” projects with a minimum of waste and fraud. At times, there were complaints from some states and cities that the funds were going out the door too slowly. Biden said his office was trying to be methodical in getting the money to where it would be most effective.
After Klain left Biden’s office, Obama brought him back to manage the White House response to the Ebola threat, a move that was criticised by some because the Harvard Law School graduate was not a public health expert.
Klain won praise from some public health experts, however, for his skill at manipulating the levers of government. He coordinated the US response to the threat among the various agencies involved and focused on getting assistance to West Africa to help contain the epidemic, insisting on regular faceto-face meetings so he could identify problems quickly, he said in an interview with magazine earlier this year. —
Ron has been invaluable to me over the many years that we have worked together
Joe Biden, President-elect
He (Klain) was always highly informed and his advice was always grounded in exceptional command of the policy process, the merits of the arguments, and the political and justice context Al Gore, former vice-president