Biden Appoints Top Democrat Official Ron Klain for Chief Of Staff

By Staff, Agencies

US President-elect Joe Biden selected Democratic official Ron Klain as his chief of staff on Wednesday, the first name to be announced in the 46th president’s cabinet.

Biden broke the news during a Veterans Day memorial at Philadelphia’s Korean War Memorial.

Klain has a long professional history with Biden, which began in 1989 when the President-elect was a senator. Later, the two served under former President Barack Obama, with Biden as vice president and Klain appointed in 2014 as the Obama administration’s head of the Ebola crisis.

Klain, a Jewish, is expected to be a central figure in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic crisis in the United States under Biden.

“Ron has been invaluable to me over the many years that we have worked together,” Biden said in a statement, “including as we rescued the American economy from one of the worst downturns in our history in 2009 and later overcame a daunting public health emergency in 2014.”

Klain served as Biden’s chief of staff during his vice presidency and as a senior advisor to his presidential campaign. He also served in both of former President Bill Clinton's campaigns and in the Clinton administration as chief of staff to former Vice President Al Gore.

"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," Biden noted.

Klain said, “It’s the honor of a lifetime to serve President-elect Biden in this role, and I am humbled by his confidence. I look forward to helping him and the Vice President-elect assemble a talented and diverse team to work in the White House.”