Biden to name Jeff Zients as new chief of staff after Ron Klain exit – reports

This would be the biggest change to Joe Biden’s inner circle of advisers since he took office two years ago. Photograph: Sarah Silbiger/EPA

Joe Biden will name as his new chief of staff Jeff Zients, a former top official for coordinating the US response to the coronavirus pandemic, after it had emerged on Saturday that the US president’s current chief, Ron Klain, plans to step down, according to US media reports.

Zients departed his pandemic-related White House role last April, but had been back since fall, assisting Klain ahead of and after November’s midterm elections, and will now take over the top job, the Washington Post reported on Sunday.