Zients’s ‘political savvy’ examined as he preps for chief of staff role

Jeff Zients is expected to step in for outgoing White House chief of staff Ron Klain in coming weeks, replacing a longtime confidant of President Biden’s with what some say is a less politically savvy adviser ahead of 2024.

That question mark comes at a time when the White House will be juggling a host of GOP-led congressional investigations, critical negotiations over the debt ceiling and the start of Biden’s likely 2024 reelection bid. Zients, while boasting a lengthy résumé, has only had government jobs in the executive branch, and his private sector experience has drawn the ire of some on the left.

“I think there are very big shoes to fill,” said Chris Whipple, who authored a book about White House chiefs of staff and more recently wrote “The Fight of His Life” about the Biden White House.

“Zients has some great attributes. He’s a managerial genius. He has a great temperament, a good relationship with the boss,” Whipple said. “I think he lacks Ron Klain’s political savvy, and I think it will be hard to match that three-decades-long-relationship bond that Klain has with Joe Biden.” 

Klain is a tireless political junkie who forged relationships with progressives and helped push a slew of bills through Congress when Democrats had narrow majorities, even as some Republicans and moderate Democrats viewed him skeptically.

Zients had been widely praised as a manager who can oversee complex operations, such as the country’s historic COVID-19 vaccination campaign, which impressed Biden. 

The White House has not officially announced any staffing changes. But Klain is not expected to remain involved much upon his departure, though he may pitch in with debate prep or in other ways with a Biden campaign, one source who has spoken to him said.

Zients is expected to coordinate extensively with Anita Dunn, Jen O’Malley Dillon, Steve Ricchetti, Kate Bedingfield and other senior White House staff who have served in the administration during Biden’s first two years.

“Next 2 years are about implementing huge bills passed during first 2 years and doing it flawlessly. It’s also about keeping tired team under fire boosted and focused on goals. No one better than @JeffreyZients to lead through that,” former White House press secretary Jen Psaki tweeted.

While Psaki acknowledged that Zients “isn’t a political animal,” she argued that he doesn’t have to be and can instead rely on O’Malley Dillon, who managed Biden’s 2020 campaign, and Dunn, a top White House aide who, like Klain, has also been a longtime confidant.

Zients was director of the National Economic Council under former President Obama and before that was acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, experience that could help him when dealing with the debt ceiling. Between the Obama and Biden administrations, he was chief executive officer of an investment firm, Cranemere, and was on the board of directors of Facebook.

Zients’s work for Facebook could be an issue for some progressives, who see his connection to the social media company as undermining much of Biden’s message and work.

“Zients served on the Board of Directors of Facebook as it was defending itself against growing attacks from both political parties,” Jeff Hauser, executive director of the Revolving Door Project, said in a statement. “We have long argued for a ‘corporate crackdown’ on behaviors that violate federal laws and harm the American people in order for corporations to become richer. Those are the practices that have made Zients rich.”

Prior to government, Zients was a management consultant and CEO and chairman of the Advisory Board Company alongside David Bradley, the former owner of The Atlantic. Bradley praised Zients for his intellect and judgment from his experience running the board with him from 1996 to 2001.

“Though modest in temperament, Jeff is wickedly smart. Jeff’s particular gift is judgment,” Bradley told The Hill. “He can reason through to the right answer more certainly than anyone I know.”

Zients’s financial disclosure statements dated March 2021 showed him as being the single wealthiest administration official who had disclosed assets, which ranged from nearly $90 million to more than $442 million. 

Klain, meanwhile, worked as chief of staff to Biden as vice president and to former Vice President Al Gore. He served as counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee, worked in the attorney general’s office and led the Obama administration’s Ebola response.

Zients is taking over with a divided Congress in place, meaning Biden’s legislative agenda will likely take a backseat to implementing and promoting the work of the last two years.

Still, part of his job will be keeping various constituencies happy, something Klain was heavily involved in.

“The President and the White House have been great partners, and Ron’s leadership was integral to that,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), the chairwoman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said in comments first made to Semafor. “Ron understood both the strength and the power of progressives helping to get the President’s agenda done. He was very respectful of both our electoral and policy strength. He ensured we had a seat at the table and our ideas were heard.”

But the White House also butted heads with some key Democrats under Klain’s tenure such as Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) when talks over a climate and social spending bill collapsed in late 2021. Manchin later blamed Biden’s staff for a breakdown in negotiations in which he said he had reached his “wit’s end.”

Zients will have his own to-do list of problems facing the White House as the administration continues to grapple with mounting scrutiny over classified materials that were found in Biden’s old office and his Delaware home. That controversy is likely to become the center of one of several House GOP investigations into the Biden administration in the coming months. Republicans are also seeking to investigate Biden’s son Hunter Biden over his finances.

The debt ceiling also will become a more urgent crisis in the coming months, with the White House refusing to negotiate with Republicans who want to use the talks to secure spending cuts. Officials have warned of potential economic damage if the country defaults, or even comes close to it.

And Zients will help Biden find the right balance between governing and campaigning if the president announces his reelection bid, which he is expected to do in the coming months.

“You come across someone like Jeff only once in your career. He has both a first-rate mind and exceptional judgment and he’s also a terrific leader, who — because of his generous nature — develops strong and trusted relationships very quickly,” said former Rep. John Delaney (D-Md.), who is a former business associate and personal friend of Zients’s.

“These are exactly the skills the president needs to manage the White House, our nation and emerging complexities like the debt ceiling,” Delaney added.