CNN: White House Keeping Ebola Czar 'Behind the Curtains'

Monday night on CNN’s “OutFront with Erin Burnett,” Burnett asked CNN senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta why the Obama administration’s new Ebola czar, Ron Klain, has been conspicuously silent on recent disease-related issues like quarantines.

“Where is Ron Klain in all this?” Burnett asked Acosta.

“He’s been in sort of a television or press quarantine, you might say. We have not seen Ron Klain since he became the Obama administration Ebola response coordinator about a week and a half ago. He started on the job last Wednesday and so the White House is saying, ‘Well, give him some time.’ You might see more from him soon.”

“But what officials are telling us, Erin, is that he’s gonna be taking on more of a behind-the-scenes role, coordinating the response among these different agencies, but this raises a question,” Acosta said.

“Today was the perfect example to see the Ebola response coordinator because you have all these various agencies of the federal government sort of weighing in on what happened in New Jersey and at the same time, you have states basically now having the ability to do whatever they want when it comes to quarantines…”

“So this was clearly a case where Ron could have been instrumental, but they’re keeping him behind the curtains here at the White House to coordinate the response behind the scenes.”

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