Former Coronavirus Coordinator Jeff Zients to Replace Ron Klain as WH Chief of Staff

Former coronavirus coordinator Jeff Zients was officially chosen by President Joe Biden to replace Ron Klain as White House chief of staff on Friday.

Zients will take over the position after Breitbart News reported on January 26 that Klain would likely step down following revelations of Biden’s classified document scandal. Zients will now help navigate the White House through multiple investigations by House Republicans.

Klain will continue to advise Biden from outside the White House.

Zients, who led Biden’s Chinese coronavirus response, made waves in December 2021 by claiming unvaccinated Americans would face a “winter of severe illness and death—for yourselves, your families.”

In the first 100 days of the Biden administration, Zients helped push 220 million vaccinations on Americans. He left the administration in April 2022 but returned in recent months to coordinate the administration’s staffing needs.

Before the Biden administration, Zients chaired the 2020 Biden transition team and served in the Obama administration as the director of the National Economic Council and acting director of the Office of Management and Budget.

Zients is independently wealthy. According to financial disclosures, he is worth between $90 million and $400 million. His financial disclosures also show he owned commercial real estate and more than a million dollars worth of gold bars.

In 2016, Zients met with Joe and Hunter Biden multiple times. It is unclear what was discussed in the meetings.

Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.