Current White House chief of staff Ron Klain has announced that he is stepping down from the position in the next few weeks. President Joe Biden is likely to name Jeff Zients as his replacement.

Klain has been discussing his resignation privately, expressing exhaustion after a long midterm election and a “grueling, nonstop stretch” campaigning for Biden since 2020, according to senior administration officials, per The New York Times.

Who is Jeff Zients?

Klain assigned Zients with managing a project following the midterms that was likely in preparation for a possible staff transition.

Zients served as COVID-19 response coordinator at the beginning of Biden’s administration. The change comes as Biden preps to launch a reelection campaign and appears to be focusing on “a defensive stance against a House Republican majority hungry to investigate his administration’s actions and his family,” The Associated Press reported.

Some of his critics argue that Zients took advantage during the management of the pandemic to “become astonishingly rich by profiteering in health care,” the Revolving Door Project said in a statement, per Politico.

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During the Obama and Biden administrations, Zients has held high-level positions that “allies argue makes him among the most well-prepared Biden advisers for the all-encompassing chief of staff job,” according to Politico.

What’s new with President Biden?

The news came on the heels of a fourth discovery of a batch of classified documents that Biden had in his possession. The documents came from his time as vice president and as a senator, documents which he should have submitted to the National Archives in accordance with the Presidential Records Act, the Deseret News reported.

Biden and his legal team approved the search after an initial discovery of classified information was discovered in November. More discoveries followed additional searches.

On the same Saturday when investigators discovered at least six classified documents, Biden made a surprise visit on “Saturday Night Live.” He appeared in a video during actress Aubrey Plaza’s monologue and joked that Plaza “was voted the most famous person from the state, beating out the president,” according to CNBC.

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