Ron Klain, White House chief of staff to President Biden for the last two years, is expected to resign his post in the coming weeks, it was reported Saturday.
Sources told NBC News and The New York Times that Klain would be resigning his role as part of a "reconfiguring" of the West Wing team ahead of the 2024 presidential election. While Biden has not officially declared his candidacy, he is expected to run for a second term.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Klain additionally served as a senior advisor on Biden's 2020 presidential campaign.
The White House chief of staff is widely recognized as one of the most powerful positions in the West Wing, with the job allowing unparalleled access to the president.
As Ballotpedia noted, the chief of staff "leads the staff of the Executive Office of the President (EOP) and advises the president on policy issues." As a result, it is also considered one of the most high-pressure jobs in Washington, D.C., and insiders have said that the stress of the job may have started to get to Klain.
Sources told NBC News that Klain had publicly expressed his exhaustion in recent months, and had been talking about leaving around the midway point of Biden's first term.
"No one is surprised," an administration official told the outlet.
Klain will be the first major West Wing advisor to depart under Biden's tenure, but sources have said he will likely not be the last.
-
Taps could run dry in drought-stricken TehranUnder the Radar President warns that unless rationing eases water crisis, citizens may have to evacuate the capital
-
Alaska faces earth-shaking loss as seismic monitoring stations shutterIN THE SPOTLIGHT NOAA cuts have left the western seaboard without a crucial resource to measure, understand and predict tsunamis
-
10 great advent calendars for everyone (including the dog)The Week Recommends Countdown with cocktails, jams and Legos
-
Trump pardons 2020 fake electors, other GOP alliesSpeed Read The president pardoned Rudy Giuliani and more who tried to overturn his 2020 election loss
-
Supreme Court to decide on mail-in ballot limitsSpeed Read The court will determine whether states can count mail-in ballots received after Election Day
-
Democrats split as Senate votes to end shutdownSpeed Read The proposed deal does not extend Affordable Care Act subsidies, the Democrats’ main demand
-
USDA orders states to ‘undo’ full SNAP paymentsSpeed Read The Trump administration is telling states not to pay full November food stamp benefits
-
Senate takes first step to end record shutdownSpeed Read Eight senators in the Democratic caucus voted with Republicans to advance legislation to reopen the government
-
Senate votes to kill Trump’s Brazil tariffSpeed Read Five Senate Republicans joined the Democrats in rebuking Trump’s import tax
-
Border Patrol gets scrutiny in court, gains power in ICESpeed Read Half of the new ICE directors are reportedly from DHS’s more aggressive Customs and Border Protection branch
-
Shutdown stalemate nears key pain pointsSpeed Read A federal employee union called for the Democrats to to stand down four weeks into the government standoff
