Last Call For Klain Jumpers

White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain is out, as the Biden Administration goes from historic accomplishments to a war footing with the House GOP Circus of the Damned.

 

Ron Klain, the White House chief of staff who has steered President Biden’s administration through two years of triumphs and setbacks, is expected to step down in coming weeks in the most significant changing of the guard since Mr. Biden took office two years ago.

Mr. Klain has been telling colleagues privately since the November midterm elections that after a grueling, nonstop stretch at Mr. Biden’s side going back to the 2020 campaign, he is ready to move on, according to senior administration officials, and a search for a replacement has been underway.

The officials, who discussed internal matters on condition of anonymity, would not say whether a successor has already been picked or when the decision would be announced, but indicated that it would come at some point after the president outlined his agenda for the coming year in his State of the Union address on Feb. 7. Mr. Klain likely would stay around for a transition period to help the next chief settle into the corner office that has been his command post for many crises and legislative battles.

His resignation would be a striking moment of turnover at the top of an administration that has been relatively stable through the first half of Mr. Biden’s term, and Mr. Klain takes pride that he has lasted longer than any other Democratic president’s first chief of staff in more than half a century. But with Mr. Biden expected to announce by spring that he is running for re-election, advisers predict more moves as some aides shift from the White House to the campaign.

The departure would also come at a time when the White House faces a widening array of political and legal threats from a newly appointed special counsel investigating the improper handling of classified documents and a flurry of other inquiries by the newly installed Republican majority in the House. The next chief of staff will be charged with managing the defense of Mr. Biden’s White House and any counterattack as the 2024 election approaches.

Among the possible choices to replace Mr. Klain mentioned by senior officials are Labor Secretary Martin J. Walsh; former Gov. Jack A. Markell of Delaware, now serving as ambassador to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development; Anita Dunn, a senior adviser to Mr. Biden; Steven J. Ricchetti, the counselor to the president; Jeffrey D. Zients, the administration’s former coronavirus response coordinator; Susan Rice, the White House domestic policy adviser; and Tom Vilsack, the secretary of agriculture.

Neither Mr. Klain nor any of those named as possible candidates to succeed him had any immediate comment on Saturday in response to messages. Ms. Dunn has flatly ruled out taking the job in conversations with colleagues.

Mr. Klain has been a singularly important figure in Mr. Biden’s administration. Having worked for Mr. Biden off and on for more than three decades, admirers say that Mr. Klain channels the president as few others can. He is seen as so influential that Republicans derisively call him a virtual prime minister and Democrats blame him when they are disappointed in a decision.

For all the crossfire, Mr. Klain helped rack up an impressive string of legislative victories, including a $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief plan, a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure program, the largest investment in combating climate change in history and measures to expand benefits for veterans exposed to toxic burn pits, lower prescription drug costs for seniors, spur development in the semiconductor industry and create a minimum 15 percent tax rate for major corporations.

Mr. Klain also helped oversee the distribution of vaccines that have curbed if not ended the Covid-19 pandemic and the enactment of a plan to forgive hundreds of billions of dollars of student loan debt for millions of Americans. And he set the tone for the White House message to the world through an active Twitter account that he used to promote victories and jab critics.

On Friday, for instance, he chided Republicans for their approach to federal spending. “How extreme is the House GOP plan to cut Social Security and Medicare?” he wrote. “So extreme that even Donald Trump is saying, ‘Hey, that’s too extreme for me!’”

 

Two observations: One, Klain was spectacular at the job, or maybe I've just lived in politics in an era where the list of former White House Chiefs of Staff included James Baker, Leon Panetta, Andy Card, Rahm Emmanuel, Reince Priebus, John Kelly, and Mark Meadows.

Certainly Klain has done the best job since Obama's second term maestro, Denis McDonough, who doesn't nearly get enough credit considering who came after him (he was Obama's former head of the NSC and was largely responsible for the Iran containment strategy which Trump and his chuds wrecked) but he'll go down as the Man Who Got Shit Done, especially on infrastructure and the environment.

The question is who will step up in his place, now that the next 23 months plus will be nothing but investigations by Kevin McCarthy's clowns?

Black Lives Still Matter, Con't

His name was Tyre Nichols, and he was beaten so badly at a January 7th traffic stop by five Memphis PD officers that he died three days later. The assault was of such a brutal nature that the Memphis PD fired all five officers on Friday.

 

The Memphis Police Department has terminated five police officers in connection with the death of Tyre Nichols, who passed away in a hospital after being arrested by police earlier this month, according to a post from the department’s verified Twitter account.

“The egregious nature of this incident is not a reflection of the good work our officers perform, with integrity every day,” Police chief Cerleyn “CJ” Davis said in a statement.

Investigators working on an internal review of the arrest found the officers violated policies for use of force, duty to intervene and duty to render aid, the chief said.

Nichols’ family voiced its approval of the terminations, according to a statement from their attorneys.

“We join Tyre’s family in supporting the Department’s decision to terminate the five officers who brutalized him, ultimately causing his death. This is the first step towards achieving justice for Tyre and his family,” attorneys Ben Crump and Antonio Romanucci said. “They must also be held accountable for robbing this man of his life and his son of a father.”

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is looking into whether the officers’ actions were criminal in nature.

“Due to the ongoing criminal investigation, the Memphis Police Association will not comment on the termination of officers in the Tyre Nichols case,” the union representing the officers said. “The citizens of Memphis, and more importantly, the family of Mr. Nichols deserve to know the complete account of the events leading up to his death and what may have contributed to it.”

Also, the Department of Justice and FBI have opened a civil rights investigation.

 

The city is expected to release footage of the police body cameras on Tuesday.

 

Years after George Floyd was killed by police, we still have cops ending the lives of Black folk for the crime of being Black folk. Unarmed Black people are still dying in the streets. Officers rarely face consequences for their murderous actions.

 

What makes this case a bit different is all five officers involved in Nichols's death are Black as well. I can understand wanting to protect your own neighborhood and joining the police force, in fact more police departments need Black officers from Black neighborhoods nationwide, but it also means the "us versus them" mentality you'll find in any PD squad room means you'll have Black officers still killing Black citizens. It's a special kind of hell, a job that makes you kill your own.

 

Black Lives Still Matter.

SInema Verite', Con't

It's a long road to 2024 and keeping the Senate will be a massive challenge, but Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego says he's coming for Sen. Kyrsten Sinema in Arizona, and the sparks will fly.

 

Arizona Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego on Monday plans to launch a challenge against Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, CBS News has learned.

Gallego, an outspoken liberal Democrat, has long been critical of Sinema, who dropped her party identification as a Democrat to be an independent just after the party won the Senate last year. The Arizona senator still aligns herself with the Senate Democratic caucus, though.

Sinema said at the time that she changed her party affiliation because she "never fit neatly into any party box", but the label switch prompted an immediate backlash from many Democrats, including Gallego.

Democratic sources close to Gallego say the Marine veteran plans to launch his Senate campaign with a video, in both Spanish and English on Monday and then launch a national media tour to promote his announcement.

 

Sinema meanwhile continues to hang out at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where's she's hobnobbing with Sen. Joe Manchin and having a good laugh over blocking the filibuster for the last two years.

 

Sens. Kirsten Sinema (I-Az.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) high-fived over their efforts to block Senate filibuster reform on stage at a panel with other U.S. lawmakers and governors in Davos, Switzerland.

Sinema was touting the duo’s accomplishments as a moderating force in the Senate — which included blocking changes to the filibuster — when Manchin chimed in.

“We still don’t agree on getting rid of the filibuster,” Manchin said before they turned to each other and high-fived.

The lawmakers’ intransigence on the filibuster effectively blocked key Democratic legislative priorities, such as voting rights reforms and codifying abortion rights, over the past two years. Sinema, who left the Democratic Party to become an independent last month, used the outing at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting to take a victory lap.

“While some would say that there were reluctant folks working in Congress in the last two years,” she said, gesturing at herself and Manchin, “I would actually say that was the basis for the productivity for some incredible achievements that made a difference for the American people in the last two years.”

Sinema was apparently jabbing back at fellow panelist Illinois Gov. J. B. Pritzker (D), who had knocked the senators for their pushback to some of President Biden’s agenda. 

 

Whoever wins the Dem primary will almost certainly draw a match against Kari Lake, and frankly this is a seat Dems cannot afford to lose. The reality is that a three way match may actually break Gallego's way.

But that's a long way off. We've battles to fight right now, and that includes Manchin and Sinema.