Ron Klain, the chief of staff at the White House, is reportedly planning to retire soon.
It would be an unusual instance of high-level turnover in the Biden administration, which entered office two years ago if Klain were to go.
According to senior administration officials, Mr Klain has been privately telling colleagues since the November midterm elections that he is ready to move on after a long, uninterrupted run by Mr Biden's side dating back to the 2020 campaign, and a search for a replacement has been ongoing.
The officials, who spoke about internal matters on the condition of anonymity, declined to say whether a replacement has already been chosen or when the decision would be made public, but they did say that it would happen after the president gave his State of the Union address on February 7 and laid out his plans for the coming year. Mr Klain would probably stay on for a while during the transition to assist the new CEO to settle into the corner office that has served as his headquarters throughout numerous crises and legislative conflicts.
Klain takes pride in the fact that he has served as the first chief of staff for a Democratic president for more than 50 years, and his resignation would mark a notable change at the top of an administration that has been largely stable throughout the first half of Mr Biden's term. But because Mr Biden is anticipated to declare his candidature by spring, advisers anticipate more changes as some aides move from the White House to the campaign.
The departure would also occur at a time when the White House faces a growing number of political and legal threats from a newly appointed special counsel looking into the improper handling of classified documents and a flurry of other inquiries by the newly elected Republican majority in the House, in addition to a newly appointed special counsel and a number of other developments. As the 2024 election draws near, the next chief of staff will be responsible for leading the defence of Mr Biden's White House as well as any counteroffensive.
Martin J. Walsh, the secretary of labour, Jack A. Markell, the former governor of Delaware who is now the ambassador to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Anita Dunn, a senior adviser to Vice President Biden, Steven J. Ricchetti, the president's counsellor, Jeffrey D. Zients, the former coordinator of the administration's coronavirus response, Susan Rice, the White House domestic policy adviser, and a senior official are a few of the names senior officials have suggested
In response to queries left on Saturday, neither Mr Klain nor any of the individuals mentioned as potential successors had any quick comments. In interactions with coworkers, Ms Dunn has categorically said that she will not accept the position.
In Mr Biden's administration, Mr Klain has been a crucial presence. Admirers claim that Mr Klain channels the president like few others can after working intermittently for Mr Biden for more than three decades. Republicans mock him as a "virtual prime minister," while Democrats point the finger at him when they disagree with a choice because of his perceived power.
Despite the conflict, Mr Klain contributed to a long list of legislative successes, including a $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief plan, a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure programme, the largest investment ever made in the fight against climate change, and measures to increase benefits for veterans exposed to toxic burn pits, decrease prescription drug costs for seniors, promote growth in the semiconductor industry, and establish a minimum 15 per cent tax rate for major corporations.
Vaccines that were distributed to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and a programme to eliminate hundreds of billions of dollars in student loan debt for millions of Americans were also overseen by Mr Klain. Additionally, he maintained an active Twitter account to highlight achievements and criticise opponents to set the tone for the White House's message to the outside world.
He criticised Republicans for their attitude on federal spending, for example, on Friday. He asked, "How drastic is the House GOP's proposal to slash Social Security and Medicare?" "That's too severe for me," even Donald Trump exclaimed, "that's so extreme!"
He also thought back on Mr Biden's inaugural day two years ago. Two challenging years, Mr Klain noted. There is so much to do. But what progress!
At the same time, Mr Klain oversaw a string of issues that eroded support for Mr Biden among the general public. While job growth was strong and unemployment stayed close to record low levels, other factors such as inflation, gas prices, and economic growth were all at record highs. Illegal immigration at the southwest border also reached record-high levels.
Mr Biden's approval rating has remained stuck in the low 40 per cent level for more than a year, most likely as a result. However, Mr Klain is getting ready to go as gas prices have dropped again, inflation is declining, and Mr Biden's political status has somewhat improved following better-than-expected midterm elections.
“He is a truly unique chief of staff,” said Kathryn Dunn Tenpas, a presidential scholar at the Brookings Institution who studies administration personnel. Mr Klain’s broad experience in multiple administrations as well as on Capitol Hill, his reputation for managing tough political challenges and his long history with Mr Biden made him the most important figure in the White House besides the president.
“Finding a successor who encompasses all of those skills will not be easy and may well be impossible,” Ms Tenpas said. “They are headed into a re-election campaign that also increases Ron’s value in that he has campaign experience and political skills. In addition, the chief of staff’s Capitol Hill experience could come in handy as they confront the divided government.”
By this point in his presidency, Donald J. Trump was already on his third chief of staff and his third national security adviser and had lost more than half of his original 15 cabinet secretaries. By contrast, none of Mr Biden’s statutory cabinet members has left. In fact, even Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen, who some had speculated might step down after the midterm elections, recently told Mr Biden that she would stay.
Ms Tenpas calculates Mr Biden’s turnover in his most important positions at 40 per cent in the first two years, far lower than the 66 per cent turnover in the same period under Mr Trump, although higher than other recent presidents, like Barack Obama, who saw just 24 per cent in his first two years.
Still, few of those who left were at the senior-most level or part of the president’s inner circle, which has remained broadly intact. Mr Biden’s overall turnover rate is higher than it would have been otherwise in part because of turmoil in Vice President Kamala Harris’s office, where staff members have come and gone with more frequency.
Other departures are anticipated, possibly after the president’s State of the Union address, scheduled for Feb. 7. Brian Deese, the president’s national economic adviser, is expected to leave later this year, while Cecilia Rouse is expected to leave her post as chair of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers to return to Princeton University.
Mr Klain, 61, who grew up in Indiana, graduated from Georgetown and earned a law degree from Harvard, has now served under three presidents and brought more White House experience to his post than perhaps any of his predecessors. He was associate counsel to President Bill Clinton, counsellor to Attorney General Janet Reno and then chief of staff to Vice President Al Gore. A central figure in Mr Gore’s futile fight to win the election recount in Florida in 2000, Mr Klain was later played by Kevin Spacey in the 2008 HBO film “Recount.”
Mr Klain also worked for Mr Biden’s Senate office and served as Mr Biden’s chief of staff when he was vice president before becoming Mr Obama’s Ebola response coordinator. Altogether, he served under nine previous White House chiefs of staff. “I have worked for more White House chiefs of staff than any other White House chief of staff,” Mr Klain once boasted.
In 2015, Mr Klain enlisted with Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign without waiting until Mr Biden announced he was not running, an act that was seen as a betrayal by some in the Biden world. In an email later made public, Mr Klain even lamented that he was “dead to them,” meaning Mr Biden’s circle. But several current and former Biden advisers said it is a testament to Mr Klain’s strategic value that he worked his way back into the good graces of not only the president but also his wife, Jill Biden.
Mr Klain has long been open that he expected to leave at the two-year mark, especially since the midterm elections. He told Chris Whipple, author of “The Fight of His Life,” a new book on Mr Biden’s presidency published last Tuesday, that he was readying to depart at that point and predicted that his successor could be a woman, without naming her.
Officials said in recent days that it was not at all certain it will be a woman after all, however. But after the rough and tumble of his tenure, Mr Klain took the midterm results as validation. “Maybe,” he wrote Mr Whipple in an email at 1:16 a.m. on election night, “we don’t suck as much as people thought.”