White House chief of staff Ron Klain has come under fire as Joe Biden’s popularity wanes and Democrats struggle to pass the president’s huge social safety net legislation.
The litany of complaints against Klain, a longtime Democratic insider, goes as follows: He ‘micromanages’ the West Wing, he’s too deferential to the liberal wing of the party, and he pays way too much attention to cable news and social media.
Two reports on Klain, 60, this week – timed to the one-year anniversary of Biden’s tenure in office – were filled with criticisms about his work. Most are from anonymous sources, likely because they are about someone in the powerful White House chief of staff position.
Several Democratic lawmakers have said they’ve gotten unexpected phone calls from Biden praising them for on-air appearances supporting him and his agenda.
Moderate Democrats complain that Klain gives too much deference to their liberal colleagues with some saying he needs to be replaced, Politico reported.
‘The president was elected because we all thought he was going to be good at governing,’ said a House Democratic lawmaker told the news outlet. ‘He was going to govern from the center, he was going to work with Republicans. And to have a chief of staff that apparently has decided that he’s going to be Bernie Sanders, I think that’s confusing. It’s just not helpful.’
White House chief of staff Ron Klain has come under fire as Joe Biden’s popularity wanes and Democrats struggle to pass the president’s Build Back Better bill
Ron Klain with President Biden at an event at the White House in June – the two men go way back with Klain having worked with him in the Senate and served as his chief of staff when Biden was vice president
Biden himself has said there are no changes coming in his White House staff – an insular group of Democrats who go back to the 2020 presidential campaign, Biden’s time as vice president and/or Biden’s tenure in the Senate.
‘I’m satisfied with the team,’ Biden said at his press conference on Wednesday.
Klain didn’t formally join Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign until he had secured the nomination. But the two go way back: Klain was a staff member on the Senate Judiciary Committee in the late 80s/early 90s when Biden was a senator serving on it to and Klain was Biden’s chief of staff when Biden was vice president.
He’s also worked in the private sector: for the venture capital firm Revolution LLC, the international law firm O’Melveny & Myers, and for Steve Case at the Case Foundation.
Klain communicates via Twitter a lot. His @WHCOS had 20 tweets or retweets by Friday afternoon – which is a pretty normal day for him.
Inter-party grumbling is typical – particularly around the one-year mark of a presidency. A chief of staff is an easy target – the person is the top White House staffer who constantly has the president’s ear.
But former White House chiefs of staff defended Klain.
‘You got to work at it every day. And that’s what Ron’s good at,’ Erskine Bowles, the former chief of staff during the Clinton administration who has spoken multiple times with Klain since he took on the job, told Politico. ‘He’s steady. He’s a real strong leader. He knows what the president thinks and why he thinks it and what he wants to get done.’
‘It falls on him because he has the title,’ said Bill Daley, former chief of staff to Barack Obama, told the outlet. ‘It goes with the territory. When it’s good, the credit goes with the president. And when it’s bad, the blame goes to you.’
Ron Klain is a longtime Democratic staffer, one of his past jobs was working as Ebola Response Coordinator for then-President Barack Obama – the two are seen in the Oval in October 2014
White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki and White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield in the White House Rose Garden in May
But there has been a tacit acknowledgement among White House officials that there needs to be a change in the president’s strategy.
One possible shift is to get Biden outside of the White House more, advancing his image from that of a senator to a commander in chief.
‘He wants to spend more time out in the country and less time behind closed doors negotiating,’ White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Thursday in her press briefing.
Biden has blamed the COVID pandemic for being so isolated.
‘I find myself in a situation where I don’t get a chance to look people in the eye because of both Covid and things that are happening in Washington, to be able to go out and do the things that I’ve always been able to do pretty well — connect with people,’ he said.
The criticism comes as Biden’s $1.75 trillion Build Back Better package of social safety net programs is stalled in the Senate. It includes investments in childcare, health care and climate initiatives.
Biden’s approval rating also has tanked. New polls from NBC News and AP-NORC showed it sat at just 43% following his first year.
During Biden’s fight to pass his legislative agenda – including the successful American Rescue Plan and the bipartisan infrastructure deal – Klain reached out to the progressive wing of the party, including Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Rep. Pramila Jayapal and prominent liberal Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.