WASHINGTON – US President Joe Biden’s chief of staff, Ron Klain, could soon step down after two years in the key, high-pressure White House post, US media reported today.
The New York Times said Klain has privately told colleagues since the midterm elections in November that after a gruelling, uninterrupted stint at Biden’s side, dating back to the 2020 campaign, he is ready to move on.
The departure could come after Biden’s State of the Union address, scheduled for February 7, the Times added.
Klain would be stepping down at an important point in the president’s term. Biden, 80, could announce in the coming weeks whether he will run for the White House again in 2024. His Republican rival Donald Trump, 76, has already done so.
The November midterms turned out less catastrophic than expected for the Democrats, who kept control of the Senate and lost many fewer seats than anticipated as they gave up the House of Representatives to the Republican Party.
Now Biden finds himself in a bind over classified documents from his time as Barack Obama’s vice-president that were found in a former office of Biden and at his family home in Delaware. They should have been turned over to the National Archives.
Biden has downplayed the affair as a mere oversight.
White House chiefs of staff rarely stay in this position for four years. Four people held the job under Trump.
Klain, 61, served as chief of staff to vice-president Al Gore from 1995 to 1999, then to Biden between 2009 and 2011.
During Obama’s tenure Klain served as coordinator of the White House response to the Ebola virus crisis. – AFP, January 22, 2023
