Buried in the middle of an NBC News report on Biden's haphazard and crisis-ridden administration is a nugget that, to most observers, has been a long time coming: White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain is looking for an exit strategy.
Like most palace intrigue stories about the goings on inside the West Wing, NBC News bases its report on "people close to the White House" without any concrete attribution. "Multiple people close to the White House said they’ve heard that chief of staff Ron Klain will depart at some point after the midterms, and one has heard him discuss leaving," the report alleges.
For the last tumultuous 16 or so months, Ron Klain has carried on as some sort of White House court jester to Joe Biden, tweeting biased "news" that relies on cherry-picked data to paint a picture of a successful administration. His job has been to suspend disbelief and act as though there's no inflation crisis, no open-border crisis, no supply chain crisis, no formula shortage crisis, no crime crisis, and no energy crisis. To his credit, Klain's ability to ignore the plight of millions of Americans is impressive for its bold tone-deafness.
Among others waiting in the wings to succeed Klain as the White House Chief of Staff, according to NBC News, are Anita Dunn, Steve Ricchetti, Susan Rice, or — in a throwback to Clinton-world — Terry McAuliffe.
The White House, for its part, denies that there is any disarray unfolding within the West Wing. "As Ron has said publicly, he has not set a time frame, and this is not a discussion on the top of anyone’s mind here."
But, as Biden and his party head for a shellacking in the midterms, being right-hand man to a president like Joe Biden without any friends on Capitol Hill should the GOP retake majorities in Congress is not exactly a dream job — especially if Republicans follow through on their pledges to investigate the Biden family and administration.
As Katie reported earlier on another portion of the NBC News story on the White House in disarray, Biden is growing impatient with his senior aides' habit of correcting his public statements, often directly contradicting what he says is the position of the United States:
"Biden is unhappy about a pattern that has developed inside the West Wing. He makes a clear and succinct statement — only to have aides rush to explain that he actually meant something else. The so-called clean-up campaign, he has told advisers, undermines him and smothers the authenticity that fueled his rise. Worse, it feeds a Republican talking point that he's not fully in command," the report states.