White House chief of staff Ron Klain, the powerful force at the center of Joe Biden’s first two years in office, is expected to step down in the weeks after the president’s State of the Union address, according to multiple people familiar with his plans.
Klain’s exact timeline is still not set, the sources said, and he is expected to stay in the West Wing for a period of time to help with the transition period for his replacement, one of the people said. The State of the Union address is set for February 7.
Klain’s departure would come at a difficult time for Biden, with a special counsel investigating his handling of classified information after his time as vice president and with the administration and the president’s family facing renewed scrutiny by the GOP-controlled US House of Representatives. An official familiar with Klain’s plans said his decision to step down is not related to the investigation underway about classified documents found at Biden’s private office and Delaware residence, with the decision being made before the special counsel was announced.
Biden has not settled on a choice for his next White House chief of staff and is discussing casting an even wider net for potential replacements, another official said. The president is known for being deliberative in making major decisions, particularly one as significant as a chief of staff, this official added.
Klain’s expected departure has been widely discussed within and around the White House in recent weeks, though those discussions – and the speculation about who would replace Klain – has intensified in recent days. Those deliberations happened to coincide with the public disclosure of the misplaced classified documents, and multiple people familiar with the situation have said there has been sensitivity around avoiding the incorrect suggestion that Klain’s eventual departure might somehow be tied to that development.
The New York Times was first to report on Klain’s expected departure.
Klain has been mulling his exit since November’s midterm elections, according to a person familiar with the matter, who said people inside the White House have watched closely for clues as to his intentions. Klain is known to email staff at all hours and even check on gas prices in the middle of the night – a work pace that many of his colleagues viewed as unsustainable in the long run.
Klain himself has noted publicly – and in a more detailed manner privately – the grueling and exhausting nature of the position. But his deeply ingrained presence in nearly every aspect of the West Wing, along with his decadeslong relationship with Biden, had led some White House officials to urge him to stay in the role for an extended period of time.
Still, officials have been quietly weighing his potential replacements, with names including Steve Ricchetti, the counselor to the president and one of Biden’s closest advisers for years; Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack; Labor Secretary Marty Walsh; Jeff Zients, the former Obama administration official who ran Biden’s Covid-19 response operation; and Anita Dunn, the senior adviser who runs the White House communications and messaging operation, among others.
Dunn has said publicly she has no desire to serve in the role and has repeated that sentiment privately, officials said, though a person familiar said that Dunn has expressed interest in being the first female chief of staff.
