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WASHINGTON: President-elect Joe Biden has selected his longtime adviser, Ron Klain, to reprise his role as chief of staff, installing an aide with decades of experience in the top job of his White House.
Klain will lead a White House likely to be consumed by the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which continues to spread uncontrollably across the country, and will face the challenge of working with a divided Congress that could include a Republican-led Senate. .
Klain served as the coordinator of the Ebola response during the 2014 outbreak.
In a statement Wednesday (November 11) evening, Biden suggested that he chose Klain for the position because his extensive experience in Washington had prepared him for such challenges.
“His deep 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,” Biden said.
Klain served as Biden’s chief of staff during Barack Obama’s first term, was chief of staff to former Vice President Al Gore in the mid-1990s, and was a key advisor on Biden’s campaign, guiding the preparations for the Biden debate. and the response to coronavirus.
He is known and has worked with Biden since the 1987 Democratic presidential campaign.
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Klain’s election underscores the effort the incoming Biden administration will make in responding to the coronavirus from day one.
Klain has public health experience as an Ebola response coordinator and played a central role in the drafting and implementation of the Obama administration’s economic recovery plan in 2009.
“I am honored by the President-elect’s confidence and will give my all to lead a talented and diverse team in a WH Biden-Harris,” Klain tweeted.
Electing Klain is also likely to ease some concerns among progressives who had been preparing for a fight over one of the first and most important personnel picks Biden will make as he builds his team in the White House.
The chief of staff is usually the guardian of the president, develops political and legislative strategy, and often serves as a liaison with the Capitol in legislative negotiations.
Progressives had raised concerns that Biden would choose one of his other former chiefs of staff: Steve Richetti, who faces skepticism about his lobbying work, or Bruce Reed, who is seen as too moderate to embrace party-driven reforms. . base.
Yet progressives see Klain willing to work with them on top priorities like climate change and healthcare.
