Biden appoints Ron Klain as White House chief of staff

WILMINGTON, Del. –President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. will appoint Ron Klain, a veteran Democrat and decades-long confidant, to be his White House chief of staff starting Thursday morning, according to several people familiar with Mr. Biden’s decision.

Mr. Klain, a lawyer with extensive experience on Capitol Hill advising President Barack Obama and on corporate boards, has been viewed for months as the most likely choice to manage Mr. Biden’s team at the White House. Known for his stable nerves, he also has a fierce spirit, which he frequently unleashed on President Trump on Twitter.

He was particularly critical of Mr. Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, having served as “Ebola czar” under Mr. Obama during an outbreak of the deadly disease during his second term. A video of Mr. Klain speaking to Mr. Trump about the pandemic was widely seen during the campaign.

The choice of Mr. Klain, who began working for Mr. Biden in 1989 when Mr. Biden was a senator from Delaware and Mr. Klain was a recent graduate of Harvard Law School, indicates that Mr. Biden intends to rely on a small circle of Washington insiders who have been by his side for years.

Advisers said the president-elect will announce more senior White House officials in the coming days, even as Mr. Trump refuses to accept the election results, tweeting “WE WILL WIN!” Wednesday evening.

Mr Biden likely won’t reveal his cabinet choices until Thanksgiving, several people close to the transition have said.

As a political tactician, Mr. Klain is familiar with the levers of power in the executive and legislative branches of government. But he will quickly come under pressure to build a White House staff that extends beyond the moderate members of the Democratic establishment with whom Mr. Biden surrounded himself for four decades in politics.

Even before Mr Biden’s announcement, the party’s liberals had already started demanding that progressives have a meaningful voice in the West Wing. And the president-elect will also be in a hurry to keep his election promise to make his administration “look like the country” by engaging people of color, LGBTQ Americans and other minorities to serve as White House staff.