President Joe Biden announced he is picking Jeff Zients as his next chief of staff, ushering in a new top aide as he prepares to launch a reelection bid while contending with a divided Congress.
(Bloomberg) — President Joe Biden announced he is picking Jeff Zients as his next chief of staff, ushering in a new top aide as he prepares to launch a reelection bid while contending with a divided Congress.
Zients is replacing longtime chief of staff, Ron Klain, who announced Friday that he would step down from his post around the time of the Feb. 7 State of the Union address next month. Klain, in a letter to White House staff, said he would leave after “completing an orderly hand-off to my successor.”
Biden praised Klain in a statement Friday, saying he’d known him since Klain was a third-year law student who came to work on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“During the last 36 years, Ron and I have been through some real battles together. And when you’re in the trenches with somebody for as long as I have been with Ron, you really get to know the person,” Biden said.
The president said he was confident Zients would continue Klain’s “example of smart, steady leadership.” Biden said the White House would host a transition event next week to thank Klain for his work and welcome Zients.
Zients, 56, is a former business executive who has held a series of roles under Biden and former President Barack Obama. Zients was Biden’s Covid-19 czar and a co-chair of Biden’s transition. He previously served as chair of the National Economic Council and acting director of the Office of Management and Budget under Obama.
More recently, Zients has led an effort to prepare candidates for senior staff and cabinet roles as the White House braces for turnover that is customary at this stage of an administration.
Biden Gatekeeper
Chiefs of staff are among the most powerful figures in Washington, shaping the president’s daily schedule and acting as a gatekeeper. The role will evolve this year once Biden announces his expected reelection bid.
The administration’s key priorities for the year include raising the US debt limit to avoid a default, implementing the major bills passed in the first half of Biden’s term, and enacting executive measures, including those under threat of legal defeat, like Biden’s student loan cancellation plan.
Aides say Zients is known for his managerial prowess.
Cecilia Munoz, a former Domestic Policy Council director under Obama, said Zients is a great pick at a time when major legislation is less likely to pass and the administration’s focus shifts to implementing laws on the books.
“Jeff is a great choice for that moment,” she said, calling Zients a renowned manager and accomplished leader. “He is also the most low-key, low-ego guy which is an unusual combination in a role like this and it’s something people who work with him greatly, greatly appreciate.”
Anthony Fauci, the immunologist who served as a Covid adviser to Biden, praised both Klain and Zients, having worked with the former when Klain ran the Ebola response and and the latter when he ran point on Covid.
The appointment will calm fears of a bumpy transition, according to Fauci. Fauci said Zients would bring members of the Covid team into the Oval Office so Biden could hear directly from them. “You could sense the really good rapport between him and the president,” Fauci said.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer praised Zients in a statement, saying he “cannot think of a better person to smoothly implement the transformational legislation Congress passed.”
“Jeff is the epitome of what an outstanding Chief of Staff should be,” Schumer said.
Zients was the founder and managing partner of Portfolio Logic LLC, an investment firm, and he’s sat on several corporate boards, including Facebook. In 2005, he was part of an unsuccessful attempt to purchase the Washington Nationals baseball team.
(Adds Munoz, Fauci, Schumer quotes starting in paragraph 11)
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