Ron Klain, Biden's chief of staff, thought he was 'dead' to the president in 2015

(Image credit: Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

published 19 July 2021

These days, Ron Klain, President Biden's influential chief of staff, is often viewed as a "surrogate" for Biden himself, The New York Times reports. But like any other longtime working relationship, theirs has not been without its rough spots.

In 2015, Klain — who also served as Biden's chief of staff during his time as vice president — signed on to work for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign without waiting "until [Biden] announced he was not running," the Times writes. The move was viewed as a "breach of the Biden loyalty protocol and became a sore spot in the vice president's ecosystem," particularly with Jill Biden.

In a 2015 email to John Podesta, Clinton's campaign chairman, Klain wrote, "It's been a little hard for me to play such a role in the Biden demise — and I am definitely dead to them," per the Times.

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But, thankfully, time heals all wounds, and Klain is back in the White House advising Biden just like before. Read more at The New York Times.

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Brigid Kennedy worked at The Week from 2021 to 2023 as a staff writer, junior editor and then story editor, with an interest in U.S. politics, the economy and the music industry.