President Joe Biden’s outgoing chief of staff, Ron Klain, said he looks forward to supporting Biden “when you run for president” in 2024.
Biden is expected to formalize his reelection plans in the weeks following the State of the Union but has not yet made an announcement.
Klain, during a tearful transition ceremony at the White House on Wednesday to welcome his successor, ticked through Biden’s “historic” two-year record, crediting aides for wildly exceeding expectations.
“It is especially not bad for a president and a team that was written off for dead in the winter of 2019,” he said, “and for dead again in the winter of 2020 and for dead again in the winter of 2021 and for dead again the first week of November 2022.”
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Klain indicated that a decision about 2024 could be nearing.
“As I did in 1988 and 2008 and 2020, I look forward to being on your side when you run for president in 2024,” Klain said.
Biden adviser Jeff Zients will take over the role from Klain after the State of the Union address next week.
The shift at the top of the president’s leadership team comes at a moment of tension for Biden, who is under investigation by a special counsel over his potential mishandling of classified files.
At the same time, Biden faces a divided Congress for the first time in his term that will shift how the White House approaches its legislative goals after two years. Newly empowered House Republicans are also probing the Justice Department’s handling and oversight of the documents case.
A seasoned business executive known for his turnaround of the foundering Obama healthcare exchange, Zients joined the Biden administration to oversee the White House’s COVID-19 response before stepping down last April. He returned in October to help Biden ready for a staffing shake-up that never transpired after Democrats performed better than expected in the midterm elections.
“It’s a big task is to implement the laws we’ve gotten passed efficiently and effectively and fairly,” Biden said Wednesday. “If anyone’s going to be able to build on that job, it’s Jeff.”
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He added, “I’m confident Jeff’s going to continue Ron’s example of smart and steady leadership on behalf of the American people.”
Zients “understands how to get big things done,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters last week. Biden confirmed the decision to elevate Zients in a statement earlier that day.
