Klain has maintained good relationships among Democrats,and some had campaigned against another candidate for the job,Biden adviser Steve Ricchetti. Ricchetti is expected to be tapped for a senior adviser role in the Biden White House.
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Klain was a natural choice for Biden. He has the President-elect's trust and more pertinent experience than anyone else who might have been considered for the job,people familiar with Biden's considerations said.
His relationship with Biden dates back more than three decades,to his first,short-lived 1987 presidential campaign,and he was chief counsel to the Senate judiciary committee when Biden was the chair.
He's also been a key campaign adviser,not just on coronavirus,but in preparing Biden for his campaign debates.
Of all the things Trump changed about the US presidency,the role of chief of staff was one of the biggest. He's had four of them during his tenure.
Priebus lasted about six months after a stormy tenure in which Trump resisted his efforts to control him and the flow of people and information into and out of the Oval Office.
Former Marine General and Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly replaced Priebus and lasted another six months,working to bring more stability to the White House. He's since become openly critical of Trump.
Former representative Mick Mulvaney held the job in an acting position for a little more than a year,and was replaced at the start of the coronavirus pandemic by Mark Meadows,another former representative.Meadows tested positive for COVID-19 last week.
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Biden is expected to restore the role to its historic duties of gatekeeper,enforcer and top adviser,one early signal of how his presidency will hew more closely to tradition.
Klain was Biden's chief of staff from 2009 to 2011,when he helped the then vice-president lead the Obama administration's oversight of the $US800 billion ($1 trillion) effort aimed at pulling the US out of a severe economic downturn.
As Biden's team prepares for new economic stimulus measures potentially in the trillions of dollars,Klain said he would draw on what he learned a decade ago.
"We need a plan that's as big as the problem we have,"he said in an interview earlier this year."These challenges that we faced in 2009 and 2010,they're back again – they never went away – they're back again with greater emphasis,and his experience doing that makes him well-positioned to put these issues front and centre today."
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Klain was the Obama administration's Ebola response co-ordinator in late 2014 and early 2015. The deadly virus infected only 11 people in the US but its ability to spread ignited a federal response. While the choice initially drew criticism because of his lack of public health experience,Klain got strong marks for his management of the levers of government. The administration also benefited from an outbreak that was far more contained than COVID-19.
There's only been one public rift between Biden and Klain. In 2015,Klain signed onto Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign before it was clear that Biden was going to sit out the race. One person close to Biden said the former vice-president had moved past any hard feelings.
Bloomberg
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