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US

Biden formally announces Ron Klain is stepping down as White House chief of staff and will be replaced by Jeff Zients

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CNN
 — 

President Joe Biden announced White House chief of staff Ron Klain will step down next week and will be replaced by Jeff Zients, the former Obama administration official who ran Biden’s Covid-19 response operation.

Biden said there will be an “official transition” event at the White House next week to “thank Ron for his tireless work and officially welcome Jeff back to the White House in this role.”

Biden hailed Klain in a statement Friday morning, saying when he was elected president he “knew” he wanted Klain to be his chief of staff calling him “as tough, smart, determined, and persistent as anyone I have ever met.”

On Zients, Biden said he is “confident that Jeff will continue Ron’s example of smart, steady leadership, as we continue to work hard every day for the people we were sent here to serve.”

The announcement confirms earlier reporting by CNN and other news outlets.

In his resignation letter Friday, Klain said it had been “quite a journey” serving Biden, writing that 36 years ago he joined Biden’s then-Senate staff on the day he returned from his honeymoon.

“Leaving and returning to your staff several times since, my work for you has defined my life, both personally and professionally,” Klain wrote to Biden, adding he was “filled with gratitude.”

Klain promised to complete “an orderly handoff” to his successor and promised to do “whatever I can to help your campaign” should Biden choose to run for reelection.

“The halfway point of your first term – with two successful years behind us, and key decisions on the next two years ahead – is the right time for this team to have fresh leadership,” Klain said. “I have served longer than eight of the last nine Chiefs of Staff and have given this job my all; now it is time for someone else to take it on.”

Klain touted Biden’s policy record in the first two years of his presidency, comparing him to some of the most notable Democratic presidents of the last century as he touted “the most significant economic recovery legislation since FDR” and praised him for managing “the largest land war in Europe since the Truman era.”

“You did it all in the middle of the worst public health crisis since the Wilson era, with the smallest legislative majority of any newly elected Democratic president in a century,” Klain wrote.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who has maintained an extremely close relationship with Klain through the last two years, praised his tenure as critical to “one of the most historic and productive first two years of a presidency in generations.”

Schumer, a New York Democrat, spoke by phone with Zients before the decision was officially announced and said the two agreed to maintain the “same close relationship with the White House Chief of Staff that I had with Ron.”

“He’s organized, focused, and deliberate, exactly the right person to lead the Biden administration and ensure the American people see and feel the benefits of these new laws,” Schumer, who often spoke to Klain by phone several times a day, said of Zients in a statement.

In replacing Klain with Zients, Biden is turning to a consultant with more business experience than political background as he enters the third year of his presidency.

The decision to pick Zients surprised some internally given that there were differences in Biden’s and Zients’ management styles early on in the administration. But Biden was impressed with his job as the coronavirus response coordinator when Zients inherited what officials described as a “largely dysfunctional” effort by the Trump administration.

Zients is expected to focus on managing the White House and implementing Biden’s legislative and policy agenda, while other senior advisers – namely senior adviser Anita Dunn and deputy White House chief of staff Jen O’Malley Dillon – take the lead on Biden’s political operation as Biden gears up for a reelection campaign.

The balance of power is expected to be similar to the split portfolios of then-White House chief of staff Jack Lew and David Plouffe, a senior adviser to former President Barack Obama who managed political operations. Klain is also expected to remain involved from the outside and additional political advisers are expected to be hired.

A White House official touted Zients as having the ideal set of skills and relationship with Biden to lead the White House in a year that will be focused on implementing key pieces of Biden’s legislative agenda. Officials pointed to Zients’ experience as Biden’s Covid-19 response coordinator and his roles as director of the National Economic Council and acting director of the Office of Management and Budget under Obama. Zients has also worked closely with Biden’s other senior advisers.

Klain’s departure comes at a difficult time for Biden, with a special counsel investigating his handling of classified information after his time as vice president and with the administration and the president’s family facing renewed scrutiny by the GOP-controlled US House of Representatives. An official familiar with Klain’s plans said his decision to step down is not related to the investigation underway about classified documents found at Biden’s private office and Delaware residence, with the decision being made before the special counsel was announced.

Klain has been mulling his exit since November’s midterm elections, according to a person familiar with the matter, who said people inside the White House have watched closely for clues as to his intentions. Klain is known to email staff at all hours and even check on gas prices in the middle of the night – a work pace that many of his colleagues viewed as unsustainable in the long run.

Klain himself has noted publicly – and in a more detailed manner privately – the grueling and exhausting nature of the position. But his deeply ingrained presence in nearly every aspect of the West Wing, along with his decades-long relationship with Biden, has made him crucial to the administration’s first two years.

Klain’s departure could preface other shifts inside the West Wing, as senior staff either shift over to the expected reelection campaign or decide themselves to depart the administration after two years. A talent search process has been underway, led by Zients, to identify potential replacements for top posts.

This story has been updated with additional reporting.

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US

Jeff Zients to replace Ron Klain as White House chief of staff

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CNN
 — 

Jeff Zients, who ran President Joe Biden’s Covid-19 response effort and served in high-ranking roles in the Obama administration, is expected to replace Ron Klain as the next White House chief of staff, according to three people briefed on the matter.

Klain is expected to step down in the coming weeks.

The move to replace Klain is particularly important for Biden, who has entered a critical moment in his presidency and his political future. As he continues to weigh whether to seek reelection in 2024, the early stages of a special counsel investigation into his handling of classified documents has rattled Democrats and emboldened congressional Republicans, who now hold the House majority and have pledged their own probes.

Biden decided on Zients after an internal search when it became clear that Klain favored Zients as his successor, a factor that played a big role in the president’s decision. Klain had tapped Zients to lead a talent search for expected staff turnover following the midterm elections, but that didn’t ultimately materialize after Democrats performed better than expected. Klain is now the most significant departure and is being replaced by the person he picked to help bring in new team members.

A source said Klain will continue to be involved and remain close to the West Wing. Biden’s core political and legislative team – which includes Steve Ricchetti, Anita Dunn, Mike Donilon, Jen O’Malley Dillon, Bruce Reed and Louisa Terrell – will continue to advise him. Zients’ new role is being compared to when Jack Lew was Obama’s chief of staff and others, like David Plouffe, focused more on his political portfolio.

Additional political talent is expected to join for the likely re-election campaign, CNN is told.

In replacing Klain with Zients, Biden is turning to a consultant with more business experience than political background as he enters the third year of his presidency.

The decision to pick Zients surprised some internally given that there were differences in Biden’s and Zients’ management styles early on in the administration. But Biden was impressed with his job as the coronavirus response coordinator when Zients inherited what officials described as a “largely dysfunctional” effort by the Trump administration.

Another factor in the search was how this stretch of Biden’s presidency will focus on implementing the legislation enacted in his first two years, and Zients is seen internally as a “master implementor,” one source said. His operational skills were on display as his handled the coronavirus response and helped with the bungled 2013 launch of HealthCare.gov during the Obama administration.

Zients now has a closer relationship with Biden and with his senior advisers and multiple Cabinet members.

While Zients is not viewed as a political operator, his deep experience inside two administrations and his reputation for technocratic skill would likely serve as assets at a time when both are viewed as critical for what Biden faces in the year ahead. Still, he will be tasked with replacing an official who was a central force inside the administration – and someone with a rapport developed over decades with Biden himself.

Klain, who had long planned to depart the White House after Biden’s first two years, has targeted the weeks after the February 7 State of the Union address for the end of his tenure.

A number of top officials had been viewed as top candidates to succeed Klain, including Cabinet members and close Biden advisers such as Ricchetti, counselor to the president, and Dunn, the senior adviser with a wide-ranging strategy and communications portfolio.

But while Zients isn’t among the tight-knit circle of long-tenured Biden advisers, he’s been deeply intertwined with the team since the 2020 campaign, when he served as co-chairman of Biden’s transition outfit.

After the election Biden tapped Zients to lead the administration’s Covid-19 response effort as he entered office with the country facing dueling public health and economic crises. While Zients left that role last spring, he was once again brought into White House operations a few months later when Klain asked him to lead the planning for the expected turnover inside the administration that historically follows a president’s first midterm elections.

Zients was tasked with conducting a wide and diverse search for prospective candidates outside the administration to fill Cabinet, deputy Cabinet and senior administration roles, officials said, in an effort that would be closely coordinated with White House counterparts.

But even as wide-scale turnover has remained minimal for an administration that has taken pride in its stability in the first two years, now, the official leading the planning effort may soon shift into one of, if not the, most critical role set to open.

The White House chief of staff is a grueling and all-consuming post in any administration, and Klain’s deep involvement across nearly every key element of process, policy and politics touching the West Wing only served to elevate that reality.

A long-time Washington hand with ties Democratic administrations – and Biden – that cross several decades, Klain is departing at a moment that officials inside the West Wing have spent the last several months viewing as a high point.

Biden entered 2023 on the heel of midterm elections that resulted in an expanded Senate majority for his Democratic Party and the defiance of widespread expectations of massive GOP victories in the House.

The sweeping and far-reaching cornerstones of Biden’s legislative agenda have largely been signed into law, the result of a series of major bipartisan wins paired with the successful navigation of intraparty disputes to secure critical Democratic priorities.

Biden has made clear to advisers that the successful implementation of those laws – which is now starting to kick into high gear across the administration – is one of their most critical priorities for the year ahead.

But Zients will also inherit a West Wing now faced with a new House Republican majority that is girding for partisan warfare – and wide-scale investigations into the administration and Biden’s family.

This story has been updated with additional information.

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US

Top Biden aide Ron Klain expected to soon leave White House

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REHOBOTH BEACH, Del. (AP) — White House chief of staff Ron Klain, who has spent more than two years as President Joe Biden’s top aide, is preparing to leave his job in the coming weeks, according to a person familiar with Klain’s plans.

Klain’s expected departure comes not long after the White House and Democrats had a better-than-expected showing in the November elections, buoyed by a series of major legislative accomplishments, including a bipartisan infrastructure bill and a sweeping climate, health care and tax package that all Republicans rejected.

The personnel change is also a rarity for an administration that has had minimal turnover so far. No member of Biden’s Cabinet has stepped down, in stark contrast to Donald Trump’s White House, with frequent staff turmoil and other crises.

The person familiar with Klain’s plans was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity to confirm the development, which was first reported by The New York Times.

The White House did not return calls or emails seeking comment on Klain’s expected exit. Spending the weekend in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, Biden did not respond to shouted questions about when his chief of staff is expected to depart.

Klain sent an email to White House staff on Friday, which was the second anniversary of Biden’s inauguration. “Although much work remains ahead, as we look back on these two years, I am awestruck at what this team has done and how you have done it,” he wrote in the email, obtained by The Associated Press, and noted that he bought cake to mark the occasion. He added: “These cakes are my small way of adding my personal thanks to those of the President, the Vice President and the country for your service and outstanding achievements.”

Now that Republicans have regained a majority in the House, the White House is preparing to shift to a more defensive posture. GOP lawmakers are planning multiple investigations into the Biden administration, examining everything from the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan to U.S. border policy. Republicans are also pledging to investigate the president’s son, Hunter Biden.

Klain’s departure also comes as the White House struggles to contain the fallout after classified documents dating from Biden’s time as vice president were discovered at his home in Wilmington, Delaware, and at his former institute in Washington. Attorney General Merrick Garland has appointed a special counsel to investigate the matter. Biden’s lawyer said Saturday that the FBI searched the Wilmington home on Friday, locating six additional documents containing classified markings and taking possession of some of his notes.

Among those on the shortlist to succeed Klain include Steve Ricchetti, counselor to the president; Labor Secretary Marty Walsh; former White House COVID-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients; Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack; and Anita Dunn, a White House senior adviser.

Dunn has publicly ruled out interest in the chief of staff job but would be the first woman in the post. She played a leading role in shaping Biden’s political and communications strategy, including the “ultra-MAGA” framing of Republicans that helped Democrats exceed expectations during the 2022 midterms.

Zients has returned to the White House since running the COVID-19 response team in a low-profile role to ensure the administration is appropriately staffed for the remainder of Biden’s first term. Ricchetti, a former lobbyist, followed after Klain and senior adviser Bruce Reed as Biden’s final vice presidential chief of staff.

Walsh, Boston’s mayor before joining the Cabinet, earned praise from Biden as recently as Friday for his job performance. Vilsack, a former Iowa governor, is in his second stint as agriculture secretary after serving in the role for the entirety of the Obama administration. He volunteered for Biden during Biden’s ill-fated 1988 presidential bid in Iowa.

Klain, a longtime Democratic political operative, has overseen a West Wing that has been largely free of the high-stakes drama that permeated the upper echelons of the Trump administration. Klain has been an outspoken proponent of Biden’s agenda via Twitter, where he frequently engages with reporters to defend the president’s record.

His social-media use has run Klain into trouble at times. In October, he was found to have violated the Hatch Act, which bars government officials from political activity when acting in their official capacity, when he retweeted a message from a political group last spring. At the time, the White House said Klain “got it wrong this time” and he promised to be more careful with his Twitter account.

The Indianapolis native has served under Biden for decades, including as chief counsel of the Senate Judiciary Committee when Biden was its chairman. Klain also worked on judicial picks in the Clinton White House, helping with the nomination of Ruth Bader Ginsberg for the Supreme Court.

“With all due respect to my predecessors, I’m sure this is a higher priority for me.” Klain said in an Associated Press interview last month in which he discussed the importance placed by Biden of seating judges on the federal bench. ”The fact that (the president) makes it such a priority, makes it a big priority for me.”

Klain helped lead then-Vice President Al Gore’s legal team during the 2000 election’s Florida vote recount in the race against Republican George W. Bush. Actor Kevin Spacey portrayed Klain in HBO’s “Recount,” an account of the events that determined the presidency.

He was also tapped during the Obama administration to lead its response to the Ebola crisis — a background that came in handy as the Biden White House took on the COVID-19 pandemic in the early months of his presidency.

The father of three is married to Monica Medina, an assistant secretary of state.

___

Balsamo and Miller reported from Washington.

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US

Ron Klain solicited money from Hunter Biden for VP residence in 2012, emails show: ‘Keep this low low key’

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FIRST ON FOX: President Biden’s White House chief of staff Ron Klain reached out to Hunter Biden in September 2012 for help in raising $20,000 for the Vice President’s Residence Foundation (VPRF), telling him to “keep this low low key” to prevent “bad PR,” according to emails reviewed by Fox News Digital.

Klain, who had left his chief of staff position in then-Vice President Biden’s office a year earlier but was the foundation’s chairman at the time of the emails, told Hunter that he needed to “tackle a piece of unpleasant business” and needed Hunter’s help.

The Vice President’s Residence Foundation is a nonprofit entity used to assist in preserving and furnishing the vice president’s official residence located on U.S. Naval Observatory grounds.

White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain  reached out to Hunter Biden in September 2012 for help in raising $20,000 for the Vice Presidents Residence Foundation (VPRF), telling him to “keep this low low key” to prevent “bad PR,” according to emails reviewed by Fox News Digital.
(Win McNamee/Getty Images)

“The tax lawyers for the VP Residence Foundation have concluded that since the Cheney folks last raised money in 2007 and not 2008, we actually have to have some incoming funds before the end of this fiscal year (i.e., before 9/30/12 – next week) to remain eligible to be a ‘public charity,'” Klain said in an email to Hunter.

“It’s not much – we need to raise a total of $20,000 – so I’m hitting up a few very close friends on a very confidential basis to write checks of $2,000 each,” Klain continued. “We need to keep this low low key, because raising money for the Residence now is bad PR – but it has to be done, so I’m trying to just collect the 10 checks of $2,000, get it done in a week, and then, we can do an event for the Residence Foundation after the election.”

Hunter then forwarded the email a few hours later to his longtime business partner, Eric Schwerin, who helped manage a majority of Hunter’s finances. Schwerin responded by telling him that they could “discuss this and some other bills on Monday” and asked whether Hunter thought “they would take a corporate check from Owasco,” which appeared to be referring to Hunter’s law firm, Owasco PC.

Three days after the initial email from Klain, who was the chairman of VPRF in 2012, Schwerin emailed Hunter to let him know that he had talked to Klain and that he was checking on whether the foundation would accept a check from Owasco.

It is unclear whether Hunter ended up using Owasco to donate to the foundation or whether he assisted Klain in soliciting donations from other individuals. However, a 990 tax form from fiscal year 2012 shows that the foundation received $20,500 in contributions that year.

At the time of Klain’s correspondence with Hunter, he was president of Case Holdings, which, according to a press release, is the holding company for “the wide-ranging for-profit and philanthropic interests of AOL co-founder Steve Case and his wife Jean,” and includes investments in Hawaii, the Case Foundation, and Revolution LLC, the venture capital firm where Klain also worked.  He was also on the board of directors for Center For American Progress Action Fund.

According to VPRF’s tax forms, its operations involve “stable costs,” including insurance premiums and professional services and “cyclical costs,” including decorating, refurbishing and transporting pieces to and from storage.

“The VPRF is organized and operated in a manner designed to attract public support and maintains a continuous and bona fide program for soliciting funds from the general public,” its 2012 tax form states. 

“The VPRF resumed fundraising at the end of its 2012 Fiscal Year and continues fundraising into the 2013 Fiscal Year,” the tax forms state. “Funds raised in both of these years have been exclusively through public sources.”

Hunter Biden forwarded the Klain email to his longtime business partner, Eric Schwerin, who helped manage a majority of Hunter’s finances.
(Photo by Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)

The foundation’s 2012 fiscal year ran from October 1, 2011, to September 30, 2012 – the same month Klain had emailed Hunter Biden asking for help in soliciting donations and when the foundation “resumed fundraising.”

Hunter Biden is currently under federal investigation for potential violations of tax, money laundering and foreign lobbying laws through his past business relationships abroad, but Klain came to his defense on Sunday, telling ABC News that President Biden is “confident that his son didn’t break the law.” 

The 2012 emails come on the heels of previous reports showing the behind-the-scenes workings of Hunter Biden after Joe Biden had entered the vice president’s office.

Fox News previously reported that a registered Serbian foreign agent and the Serbian Ambassador to the United States were in discussions with Hunter Biden in the early years of his dad’s first term as vice president to coordinate the scheduling of an investment meeting with Serbia’s president and Serbian “high net worth individuals.” 

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Past emails have also revealed that between 2010 and 2011, Hunter Biden had said his relationship with a Chinese tycoon, who Hunter and his partners referred to as “Super Chairman,” and who was arrested on money laundering charges in China, had “everything to do with my last name.”

Additionally, emails have shown that Hunter Biden tried to help a Chinese oil executive purchase an African oil field after he was warned the company had ties to countries hit with U.S. sanctions, the Free Beacon reported. 

The White House, Schwerin, and Hunter’s attorney did not respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment. 

Fox News’ Stephen Sorace contributed to this report.

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Business

Hannity rips ‘Shadow President’ Klain for dismissing inflation concerns

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In his Opening Monologue on Thursday, Sean Hannity identified White House Chief of Staff Ronald Klain as the “puppeteer” behind the actions of the “cognitively impaired” 78-year-old President Joe Biden, calling out the Delaware Democrat’s longtime confidant for dismissing the American people’s concerns about rising inflation.

Klain, who served as Biden’s vice presidential chief of staff as well as President Obama’s Ebola czar, retweeted a Harvard professor who diagnosed the current inflation spike as a “high-class problem”.

On “Hannity,” the host said Klain’s intentional ignorance to the economic plight of working class Americans under Biden is not becoming of a leader:

“If you are middle-class or low income in America, you are in trouble, thanks to Joe Biden – He’s the one that gave up the energy independence he inherited,” Hannity said. 

“Shadow President and master puppeteer – so kind, so thoughtful and loving – Ron Klain … believes we smelly Walmart shoppers of America, that cling to God, guns, Bibles, and religion don’t need to worry about inflation,” he said.

Biden’s former boss, President Obama, famously claimed during a 2008 fundraiser that economically depressed Pennsylvanians “cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them — or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment, as a way to explain their frustrations.”

Hannity said the future only looks bleaker for Americans:

“Look at your gas tank, how much does it cost you to fill your tank? Your heating bills were about to jump 54% as “The Wall Street Journal” put it, a ‘winter of giant gas bills is coming’.”

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He noted that former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, a liberal appointed by Obama, has even sounded the alarm about Biden’s inflationary policies.

The host echoed a sentiment from CNBC anchor Joe Kernen, about a Democratic president “losing” Summers:

“It’s really bad and it gets worse,” Hannity said, finishing Kernen’s thought in his own regard.

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US

‘I’m not going to get into legislative tactics’: Klain sidesteps reconciliation debate amid infrastructure rollout

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The complex budgetary maneuver would permit Senate Democrats to pass Biden’s expansive infrastructure plan with a simple majority in the chamber. But Klain declined Thursday to comment on whether the White House had already determined it would seek to bypass the filibuster, saying he was “not going to get into legislative tactics today.”

“We just launched this plan yesterday,” he said. “Congress is out of session. We’re going to start to bring members down here physically … after this Easter break and talk to Congress — talk to members of the House and Senate, Democrats, Republicans about how they want to move forward. We want to move forward, if it’s at all possible, on a bipartisan basis, and I think there’s some hope for that.”

Biden unveiled his infrastructure plan at an event Wednesday in Pittsburgh, laying out a series of investments in roads, bridges and transit — as well as improved access to clean water, broadband and elder and disability care. The administration has proposed paying for the legislation with a rewrite of the corporate tax code, including raising the amount paid by businesses from 21 percent to 28 percent.

“Look, I think these are national needs. And as the president has said, people have to decide if they’re going to deliver or divide. And we intend to deliver,” Klain said Thursday. “And when I talk to Republicans, I see that they want to deliver, too.”

Republicans in Congress have blasted Biden’s effort to reverse the corporate component of former President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, and progressive Democrats have complained the administration’s infrastructure plan is not far-reaching enough. But Klain indicated the White House would not be deterred by congressional criticism.

“In the end, let me be clear: The president was elected to do a job,” he said. “And part of that job is to get this country ready to win the future. That’s what he’s going to do.”

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