Joe Biden Campaign Floats Ron Klain, Who Admitted Obama Admin Botched Swine Flu Response, as Chief of Staff

Joe Biden is so confident of a win that names of possible Cabinet members and staffers are leaking out on Tuesday, including the name of one who admitted the Obama administration mishandled the swine flu response.

Ron Klain is the “leading” candidate to serve as Biden’s potential chief of staff, Bloomberg reported.

Anonymous “allies” told the site that Klain is well suited to handle ongoing issues, “given that Biden would be tackling coronavirus and the resulting economic downturn upon taking office.”

Other names floated by “the people” include Jeff Zients, a co-chair of Biden’s transition team, and U.S. Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-LA). But Klain is the frontrunner because he “has the candidate’s trust and more pertinent experience than anyone else who might be considered for the job.”

In 2019, Klain was candid about the Obama administration’s mishandling of the swine flu, or H1N1 pandemic.

Klain told a group in 2019 discussing the 100th anniversary of the 1918 flu pandemic:

I wasn’t involved directly in the H1N1 response, but I lived through it as a White House staffer. And what I will say about it is a bunch of really talented, really great people working on it. And we did every possible thing wrong. And it’s, you know, 60 million Americans got H1N1 in that period of time. And it’s just purely a fortuity that this isn’t one of the great mass casualty events in American history. Had nothing to do with us doing anything right. Just had to do with luck.

The Washington Post sought to provide “context” for Klain’s remarks related to an H1N1 vaccine, but underscored what President Trump and others have alleged: That the Obama administration did not handle it properly.

“Indeed, there was an issue with developing the swine-flu vaccine during the outbreak. Not enough vaccines were produced, as the U.S. government decided to rely on a 50-year technology involving eggs — and the H1N1 virus grew more slowly in the eggs than expected,” the paper reported.

Klain is “widely respected by Democrats across the party’s ideological spectrum and progressives say they would be comfortable with him in that role,” according to Bloomberg.

Kyle Olson is a reporter for Breitbart News. He is also host of “The Kyle Olson Show,” syndicated on Michigan radio stations on Saturdays. Listen to segments on YouTube or download full podcast episodes. Follow him on Twitter, like him on Facebook, and follow him on Parler.