{"id":155231,"date":"2023-02-02T12:00:44","date_gmt":"2023-02-02T20:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/?p=155231"},"modified":"2023-02-02T12:00:44","modified_gmt":"2023-02-02T20:00:44","slug":"president-biden-at-event-where-jeff-zients-takes-over-from-ron-klain-as-chief-of-staff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/?p=155231","title":{"rendered":"President Biden at Event Where Jeff Zients Takes Over from Ron Klain as Chief of Staff"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Washington, DC&#8230;Whoa! (Applause.)  Hello, everyone. I want \u2014 please, have a seat if you have one. (Laughter.)  I want to \u2014 for the press, I want to put an end to the rumors that the rest of the staff has not quit because he\u2019s leaving. (Laughter.) I want you to know that.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/QTDUiR1znRE\" title=\"President Biden Hosts an Official Transition Event\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>I knew this day would come, to state the obvious, but it doesn\u2019t make it any easier. You know, I\u2019ve known Ron since he was a kid, you know, a third-year law student in a school near Boston. What was that school\u2019s name? (Laughter.) Harvard \u2014 (pronounces in Boston accent) \u2014 I think.<\/p>\n<p>And he came to work with me in the United States Senate on the Senate Judiciary Committee a week after he got married. And he married a woman even brighter. Stand up, (inaudible). (Applause.)<\/p>\n<p>She \u2014 the only reason he came down: She was a \u2014 a third-year law student at Georgetown, and he decided to do his third year \u2014 he still graduated from Harvard at the top of his class, but he decided to do his third year at Georgetown. And that\u2019s when I \u2014 he was working full-time as \u2014 as a student and working full-time with me.<\/p>\n<p>I knew the moment he started, he was a once-in-a-generation talent. And that\u2019s not hyperbole. He\u2019s a fiercely brilliant intellect. And again, those of you who work with him know it to be true. And just as important, he has a heart as big as his head. (Laughter.)<\/p>\n<p>You know \u2014 you know, thank you, Ron and Monica, and Hannah and Mike and Danny. You know, you\u2019re like family. And folks who\u2019ve been with me a long time know it\u2019s hard to get away from us \u2014 (laughter) \u2014 even when you leave.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking of family, there\u2019s one member of the family who couldn\u2019t be here: Ron\u2019s mom.<\/p>\n<p>Mom, if you can see this or it gets played for you, we love you. We really do. All of us love you, and we\u2019re thinking a lot about you. You raised one heck of a son. And you should be so proud. Ron is a credit to you, Mom.<\/p>\n<p>And \u2014 and Ron couldn\u2019t have chosen \u2014 could have done anything he wanted to do in life, but he chose to serve his country. He chose to serve his country. And the whole family, the whole Klain family made sacrifices in order for him to be able to do that public service. And they\u2019re in the front row here.<\/p>\n<p>And, I mean, you \u2014 you really did. And I want to thank all of you \u2014 all of you for letting your dad do what he\u2019s done, as long as he has, with me.<\/p>\n<p>For the last 36 years, Ron has been at my side in one capacity or another. And there\u2019s been some \u2014 some very tough and real battles we\u2019ve been in together. And when you \u2014 when you\u2019re in the trenches with somebody, you \u2014 you figure out pretty quickly what they\u2019re made of. You get to know the person pretty damn well.<\/p>\n<p>And you see everything about them that \u2014 when they \u2014 how they act under significant pressure and how \u2014 and this guy \u2014 there\u2019s a phrase in the neighborhood I come from: He\u2019s willing to jump in front of the bus for you. This is a guy who has always been there, you know.<\/p>\n<p>And so, I knew, as we faced our most important battle \u2014 the battle for the soul of the nation \u2014 that I needed Ron. And that\u2019s not hyperbole. I needed Ron, and I knew it. And I asked him. I asked him whether he would lead the charge for me. And, you know, he did.<\/p>\n<p>And he knows how government works, how politics works, and how Congress and the White House works. But most of all, he has enormous, enormous integrity.<\/p>\n<p>He assembled the most diverse and most talented White House team in history and led \u2014 led them to solve some of the really difficult problems.<\/p>\n<p>With Ron\u2019s leadership, just look at what we\u2019ve gotten here over the years \u2014 over the last two years alone: fighting COVID, reviving our economy, rebuilding the infrastructure, protecting our planet, fighting for gun \u2014 fighting against gun violence, advancing civil rights, winning confirmation of nearly 100 federal judges, including the first Black Supreme Court justice in history. (Applause.) And playing a major role in reasserting America\u2019s place in the world. Maybe most important of all, helping restore faith in our democracy. The list will be the \u2014 the legacy of the White House team under Ron\u2019s leadership.<\/p>\n<p>And while we\u2019ve accomplished an extraordinary amount of work marked \u2014 a consequence of Ron\u2019s success, he is beloved by those of you here in the White House, as demonstrated by this crowd here.<\/p>\n<p>And, you know, as I said earlier, there\u2019s a lot of Klainiacs in this room. (Laughter.) They\u2019re going to miss him, but not as much as I will.<\/p>\n<p>And that\u2019s why I knew it was important to fill Ron\u2019s shoes with someone who understands \u2014 who understands what it takes to lead a team and who is focused on getting important things done. And that\u2019s Jeff Zients right here.<\/p>\n<p>And Jeff \u2014 (applause) \u2014 I\u2019ve seen Jeff tackle some of the toughest issues in our government. When I was Vice President, I first got to know him. We worked together and implemented the Recovery Act of 2009. And later, he was Director of the Office of Management and Budget.<\/p>\n<p>He later led the daunting and complicated task of fixing Healthcare.gov to get millions of Americans signed up for quality and affordable healthcare under the Affordable Care Act.<\/p>\n<p>And he led the National Economic Council, and he shares my determination to build an economy that works for everyone \u2014 works from the bottom up and the middle out. And \u2014 because when that happens, everybody does well.<\/p>\n<p>After the 2020 election, some of you know my \u2014 one of my closest friends in the world, Ted Kaufman, who was my administrative assistant then and became \u2014 took my place in the Senate. He helped Ted manage our transition and into office in incredibly trying circumstances. And he did the work.<\/p>\n<p>Thanks to Jeff, we had historically a diverse team from day one, and we were ready to get to work. And he led our COVID response \u2014 a massive logistical undertaking of historical proportions \u2014 and so much more.<\/p>\n<p>When I ran for office, I promised to make the government work for the American people. And that\u2019s what Jeff does. It\u2019s a big task ahead \u2014 is to implement the laws we\u2019ve gotten passed efficiently and effectively and fairly, and let people know what we\u2019ve already done.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ve made a lot of progress, but we have to build on that project. And if anyone is going to be able to build on that job, it\u2019s Jeff.<\/p>\n<p>I want to thank Jeff and Mary. Mary \u2014 where\u2019s Mary? There you are, Mary. (Applause.) And their wonderful family. Will the whole Zients family stand up? Come on. Come on, Mom.<\/p>\n<p>You guys, what you have to know is \u2014 you know, when you\u2019re a family of someone running the White House, you got to be embarrassed and \u2014 you know, I got to embarrass you all the time and introduce you. (Laughter.) But it\u2019s because we\u2019re proud of him. And thank you. I know this doesn\u2019t happen without the cooperation of the whole family. I mean that sincerely.<\/p>\n<p>Now, let me close with this. When \u2014 when you\u2019re President of the United States and you\u2019ve got to make some pretty tough calls and to make \u2014 decisions you make are only as good as the team you put around you.<\/p>\n<p>And I have an extremely lucky \u2014 I\u2019ve been extremely lucky and grateful to have such a team who\u2019s led by Ron.<\/p>\n<p>And I\u2019m confident Jeff is going to continue Ron\u2019s example of smart and steady leadership on behalf of the American people.<\/p>\n<p>And now it\u2019s my great pleasure \u2014 and I don\u2019t get to do this often \u2014 to turn this over to Ron to publicly speak in front of everybody. (Laughter.)<\/p>\n<p>Ladies and gentlemen, Ron Klain. (Applause.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Washington, DC&#8230;Whoa! (Applause.) Hello, everyone. I want \u2014 please, have a seat if you have one. (Laughter.) I want to \u2014 for the press, I want to put an end to the rumors that the rest of the staff has not quit because he\u2019s leaving. (Laughter.) I want you to know that. I knew this [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":155232,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,5,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-155231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-government","category-news","last_archivepost"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Fullscreen-capture-222023-115954-AM.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=155231"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":155233,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155231\/revisions\/155233"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/155232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=155231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=155231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=155231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}