Biden reportedly picks Ron Klain as his White House chief of staff

(Image credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

published 12 November 2020

President-elect Joe Biden has selected Ron Klain to be his White House chief of staff, several people with knowledge of the matter told The New York Times.

Klain is a lawyer who served as "Ebola czar" during former President Barack Obama's second term, leading efforts to guide the country through an outbreak of the disease. In the late 1980s, after graduating from Harvard Law, Klain went to work for Biden, then a senator representing Delaware, and they have remained close confidants ever since.

Biden could publicly name Klain as his chief of staff as early as Thursday morning. The president-elect is expected to announce several top White House staffers in the next few days, but advisers say he likely won't share his Cabinet picks until closer to Thanksgiving.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.