By Kenichi Serino,
@KenichiSerino
Deputy News Editor, Digital
President Joe Biden is expected to name Jeff Zients, a businessman and former COVID-19 response coordinator, as his new chief of staff, sources confirmed to the NewsHour.
Biden’s current top aide, Ron Klain, is expected to step down in the coming weeks. The change within Biden’s circle of close advisers comes as the administration prepares for a reelection campaign and braces for House Republicans’ promised investigations into the White House and the president’s family members.
Here’s a brief rundown of Zients’ background.
Zients has a history of assisting Democratic administrations.
Zients served the Obama administration
in multiple capacities. The entrepreneur and management consultant:
Zients first joined the Biden team as the vice chairman of Biden’s 2020 presidential transition team. He was also widely credited for Biden’s COVID-19 programs, including the oversight of the early stages of the vaccine rollout. However, he was also criticized for
rosy predictions of a COVID-free summer in 2021 as the delta variant took hold in other cities around the world, and for rapid-test shortages in December 2021 as the omicron wave swept through the United States.
Health care adviser Andy Slavitt, who worked with Zients on the White House COVID Response Team,
told the NewsHour that the Biden administration trusts Zients, who’s seen as a problem-solver who immerses himself in the day-to-day details of governance.
Critics are focusing on Zients’ corporate background and role in COVID response.
Zients’ impending appointment, which hasn’t been formally announced yet, has already been met with scrutiny.
Jeff Hauser, founder and executive director of the progressive group Revolving Door Project, said
in a statement that Zients’ private-sector background involves the sorts of corporate practices that the Biden administration ought to actively discourage. Hauser flagged Zients’ two-year stint on Facebook’s board of directors and his oversight of health care companies that paid millions to settle Medicare and Medicaid fraud allegations.
Public Citizen, a consumers’ rights advocacy group, criticized the Biden administration and Zients for failing to make vaccines more accessible for the rest of the world, specifically countries that
could not afford them.
“The United States and [other] rich countries refused to share vaccine technology with developing countries and failed to deliver sufficient vaccines,” the group
wrote in April 2022 when Zients left his role as COVID-19 response coordinator.
“Jeff Zients failed and the world paid the price,” the statement said.
#POLITICSTRIVIA
Serena Golden,
@SerenaEGolden
Senior Editor, Digital
Jeff Zients' lengthy resume makes him a familiar figure in political Washington.
But to some D.C. residents, Zients is better known for a role having nothing to do with the White House. Between his stints in the Obama and Biden administrations, Zients invested in a popular local eatery.
Zients, however, divested from that business when he joined the Biden administration.
Our question: What food does the eatery specialize in?
Send your answers to
[email protected] or tweet using #PoliticsTrivia. The first correct answers will earn a shout-out next week.
Last week, we asked: The U.S. government defaulted on some federal debt following which war?
The answer: The War of 1812. About two years after the start of the War of 1812, British troops set fire to several D.C. landmarks, including the White House and the U.S. Capitol. So the U.S. wasn’t able to fulfill its financial obligations shortly after that. Another instance happened in 1979. At the time, technical problems at the Treasury
amounted to a “mini-default,” or a delay in payments.
Congratulations to our winners: Barry Weinstein and Margaret Huebner!
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