Biden Eyes Wealthy COVID Czar To Take Over As Chief Of Staff: Report

Daniel ChaitinJanuary 22, 2023

According to a Sunday report, President Joe Biden will appoint an ex-COVID czar to his next chief of staff.

Sources told The Washington Post Jeff Zients is the expected successor to Ron Klain as chief of staff. As of press time, no formal announcement was made.

Zients served as COVID response coordinator for the first year-plus of Biden’s presidency, leading the charge in promoting vaccinations. When Ashish Jha was announced to be taking over, Biden in the spring 2022, the president praised Zients. “a man of service and an expert manager.”

The White House is still not open to discussing a chief-of-staff overhaul. Senior administration officials remain reticent about the possibility of a chief of staff overhaul. told The New York Times Klain confided to colleagues that he was planning to step down from the midterm elections.

Insiders said The Washington Post Zients went back to the White House to assist Klain in staff turnover following the 2022 election. Klain has been assigning Zients different projects, which some insiders have seen as Klain preparing Zients in preparation for the chief-of-staff position, according to the report.

Zients established himself as a wealthy investor who took on various senior roles in the Obama administration and served on Facebook’s board of directors. A Wall Street Journal analysis in March 2021 showed Zients listed assets worth at least $89.3 million, placing him among the richest of Biden’s top aides.

Zients, if he is elected chief of staff will succeed Biden. There has been growing criticism of Biden’s handling of classified documents.

The White House has repeatedly insisted the president and his attorneys are fully cooperating with the National Archives and Justice Department as an investigation turns up more classified documents at Biden’s Wilmington, Delaware, residence and a think tank office dating back as far back as his time in the Senate.