Jeff Zients, the White House’s Covid-19 response czar, said during a press briefing at the White House where he talked about pausing the release of the Johnson & Johnson Janssen Covid-19 vaccine on April 13, 2021, in Washington, DC.
Brendan Smialowski AFP Getty Images
Jeff Zients will be President Joe Biden’s next chief of staff, according to media reports on Sunday.
Zients, who helped lead the Biden administration’s Covid-19 response and ran an ambitious vaccine campaign, left the White House in April before returning in the fall to help the current chief of staff, Ron Klain, prepare for a turnover in the administration. mid-semester election.
Klain has been open about his intentions to leave his post, and he will be preparing to step down in the coming weeks, according to a Saturday report from The New York Times.
Klain, a longtime adviser to President Joe Biden, supported Biden during the 2020 campaign and helped guide the Biden administration since he was elected to office. After the midterm elections in November and two years in the White House, Klain told colleagues he was ready for something different, the Washington Post report said.
Klain previously served as Biden’s chief of staff during former President Barack Obama’s first term, and he has worked with Biden since he became president in 1987. Zients, in contrast, has spent most of his career in the private sector and first committed robbery. into politics during the Obama administration.
Although Zients has a relatively limited political background compared to Klain, he is a “master implementer” and “engages deep loyalty” from his colleagues, the Post reported.
A White House representative did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.