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(Reuters) – Ron Klain was once selected by Democratic President Barack Obama to protect America from the threat of a deadly virus. As chief of staff to President-elect Joe Biden, he will take on a similar mission.
In 2014, Obama appointed Klain to serve as the “Ebola Czar” after an outbreak in West Africa that ended up killing thousands of people around the world. In all, only 11 people were treated in the United States for the virus and two died.
Biden has made fighting the resurgence of the coronavirus, which has killed more than 239,000 people in the United States, his top priority as he waits to take office in January. He appointed Klain as his chief of staff late Wednesday, and the longtime adviser is expected to take a leadership 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 wide and varied experience and ability to work with people from across the political spectrum is precisely what I need in a White House chief of staff as we face this time of crisis and bring our country together again.”
Klain, in a statement, called his selection “the honor of a lifetime.”
Biden has started building his administration since he won enough electoral votes to win the November 3 election. President Donald Trump, who has made unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud, has yet to admit and is pursuing legal challenges to try to overturn the results.
Klain, 59, served as Biden’s outside adviser during the campaign, particularly in relation to the coronavirus, and spoke almost daily with the candidate, Klain said in media interviews.
He served as Biden’s top aide in the White House before, when Biden was Obama’s vice president. He held the same job under Vice President Al Gore during the Clinton administration.
Gore called Klain “a reliable and capable advisor.”
“He was always very informed and his advice was always based on an exceptional mastery of the political process, the merits of the arguments and the political and judicial context,” the former vice president told Reuters.
Klain’s stint in the White House with Biden came during the aftermath of the 2008-2009 financial crisis, when Obama tasked Biden with overseeing the implementation of the $ 787 billion Recovery Act for state and local governments in need. .
Biden and Klain worked to ensure that the money went to “out of the box” projects with a minimum of waste and fraud. At times, there were complaints from some states and cities that funds were going too slowly.
Biden said his office was trying to be methodical in getting money where it would be most effective.
‘LET THE MEDICAL EXPERTS BE THE TOUCHSTONE’
After Klain left Biden’s office, Obama brought him back to manage the White House response to the Ebola threat, a move that was criticized by some because the Harvard Law School graduate was not an expert. in public health.
Klain won praise from some public health experts, however, for his ability to manipulate the levers of government. He coordinated the U.S. response to the threat among the various agencies involved and focused on getting assistance for West Africa to help contain the epidemic, insisting on regular face-to-face meetings so that he could quickly identify problems, he said in an interview with WIRED. magazine earlier this year.
“The high-level lessons that are being applied today are, first and foremost, let the medical experts be the touchstone of the answer; let them be the people who are formulating this strategy, let them be the spokespersons,” Klain told the magazine. .
Klain used that experience to advise Biden this year on the coronavirus outbreak. He recorded a viral video for the campaign during the first surge in COVID-19 cases, detailing what he felt were the Trump administration’s failures on the coronavirus with the help of a whiteboard.
Klain’s history with Biden dates back to Biden’s chairmanship of the Senate Judiciary Committee in the 1980s. In 1991, when the committee held the contentious Supreme Court confirmation hearing for Clarence Thomas, Klain, the chief attorney for the Senate committee, was charged with investigating claims of sexual harassment against Thomas made by Anita Hill.
Criticism of Biden’s treatment of Hill by women’s groups followed him into his 2020 presidential race. Klain said on Twitter in 2018 that he never doubted the veracity of his allegations.
Biden’s aides hope Klain’s experience with the confirmation processes – he also led the late Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg to court during the Clinton administration – will help a Senate that can remain under Republican control. Klain himself was a court clerk for Judge Byron White.
Klain was also active on Gore’s behalf in the 2000 Florida recount drama that saw the United States Supreme Court side with Republican George W. Bush, making him President of Gore. Klain was played by Kevin Spacey in the HBO movie “Recount.”
(Reported by Trevor Hunnicutt and James Oliphant; edited by Colleen Jenkins and Peter Cooney)
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