With the outgoing Ron Klain on one side and the incoming Jeff Zients on the other, President Joe Biden delivered remarks in the East Room of the White House on Feb. 1 commemorating the chief of staff transition.
Klain, who served as Biden’s chief of staff when he was vice president and then accepted the same role when Biden took office as president in January 2021, will step down on Feb. 8.
He will be replaced by Zients, a former Obama administration official who spearheaded Biden’s coronavirus response team.
“I knew this day would come, but it doesn’t make it any easier. He came to work with me on the Senate Judiciary Committee a week after he got married,” Biden said of Klain. “I knew the moment he started, he was a once-in-a-generation talent.
“For the last 36 years. Ron has been on my side in one capacity or another,” Biden added. “When you’re in the trenches with somebody, you figure out pretty quickly what they’re made of. You get to know the person pretty damn well. He’s willing to jump in front of the bus for you.”
After he was introduced by Biden, Klain opened his remarks by saying “I will try to keep this brief, but I can’t promise there will not be some tears.”
Displaying emotion at different points of his speech, Klain said, “This is the best job I’ve ever had. And even though it’s also the hardest job I’ve ever had, I will miss it, but I take solace in knowing that I’m leaving you in the best of hands.”
Remembering Work Done
Zients recently served on the board of directors at Facebook. During his stint with Bain Consulting, he helped fund Call Your Mother, a bagel shop that is frequented by Washington political figures.“Two weeks ago, I marked our anniversary here by buying everyone on the team cake,” Klain said. “It was the second time in two years I bought everyone cake, and people were very happy. But Jeff has pledged to buy everyone in the White House a free bagel every single day.
“So I will soon be forgotten. But what will not be forgotten is the work we have done together these two years,” Klain added. “Together, we passed the largest economic plan—the most significant one since FDR—while managing the largest land war in Europe since Truman.
“We passed the biggest infrastructure bill since Ike and more judges than any first-year president than JFK, and passed the second largest health care bill since LBJ,” Klain continued.
“We passed the most significant gun control bill since Bill Clinton was president and the largest climate bill passed by any country anytime anywhere on planet Earth, all while managing the worst public health crisis any president has faced since Woodrow Wilson with the narrowest majority in Congress of any new Democratic president in 100 years.”
Leaving at Challenging Time
“Now that’s not bad. And it is especially not bad for a president and a team that was written off for dead in the winter of 2019. And again in the winter of 2020, again in the winter of 2021, and again the first week of November 2022,” Klain said, his voice cracking with emotion.“The president likes to say it is never a good bet to bet against the American people and he is right. But what I want to say today is it is never a good bet to bet against Joe Biden. And this team. Never, ever a good bet,” Klain said.
Klain is leaving at a challenging time for Biden, who is under investigation by a special counsel for his handling of classified documents after his tenure as vice president. Also, he and some members of his family are facing scrutiny from the GOP-controlled U.S. House of Representatives.
Klain’s decision was reportedly made before Attorney General Merrick Garland assigned a special counsel to investigate Biden about the classified materials found at Biden’s private office at the Penn Biden Center in Washington and his residence in Wilmington, Delaware.
During the 2000 presidential election’s Florida vote recount, Klain helped guide Gore’s legal team.
He also directed the Ebola crisis response when Obama was president.
Zients served as an adviser to Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign, ran his transition team, oversaw the Biden administration’s coronavirus response, and led the COVID-19 vaccination campaign.
A former acting director and deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget, Zients was director of the National Economic Council under the Obama administration and also chaired Obama’s Management Advisory Board.
“I first got to know him we worked together and implement the Recovery Act of 2009 and later he was director of the Office of Management and Budget,” Biden said of Zients.
“He later led a daunting complicated task of fixing healthcare.gov to get millions of Americans signed up for quality affordable healthcare under the Affordable Care Act.
“When I ran for office, I promised to make the government work for the American people. That’s what Jeff does,” Biden added. “It’s a big task to implement the laws we pass efficiently and effectively and fairly.
“We’ve made a lot of progress. But we have to build on that progress. And if anyone’s going to be able to build on that job, it’s Jeff.”
Zients was concise with his remarks on Feb. 1 after he was introduced by Klain. He thanked Biden for the opportunity and praised Klain for his service.
“Governing is never easy. That’s an understatement. But when you have the right team, you can accomplish anything,” Zients said. “It all comes down to people. It all comes down to the team. And Mr. President, you have assembled a first-grade team.”
Klain did not mention Biden’s potential run for a second term in 2024, but in his resignation letter submitted last week, he wrote, “If you choose to run in 2024, I look forward to doing whatever I can to help your campaign, as I did for your 1988, 2008, and 2020 campaigns.
“I will always be a Biden supporter and advocate in whatever I do next.”
