Biden's chief of staff pick expects him to campaign in Georgia ahead of Senate runoffs

Democrats in Georgia have said they'd prefer for President-elect Joe Biden to focus on the White House transition and send surrogates like former President Barack Obama to actively campaign for Democratic Senate candidates John Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, both of whom are gearing up for January runoffs against Republican incumbents that will seal the fate of the upper chamber. One of Ossoff's advisers, for instance, told Politico earlier this week that the best thing Biden can do is avoid getting into a fight with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), whom he may have to work closely with in the future should the GOP hold the Senate, and "restore faith in the presidency" while "the worst thing to happen is if it gets partisan in D.C. again."

But Ron Klain, Biden's pick to be White House chief of staff, told NBC's Chuck Todd during Sunday's edition of Meet the Press that the president-elect will likely travel to Georgia to campaign for Ossoff and Warnock ahead of the vote.

Ossoff, for his part, had nothing but praise for Biden and said he thinks there's a whole lot of enthusiasm for the president-elect in Georgia that will feed into the Senate race, so perhaps he's on a different page than his aforementioned adviser. Tim O'Donnell

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

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.

Sign up