WASHINGTON - President Obama on Friday appointed Ron Klain, a former chief of staff for vice presidents Al Gore and Joseph R. Biden Jr., as Ebola 'czar,' to manage the government's response to the deadly virus as anxiety grew over the spread of the deadly virus, according to a White House official.
Mr. Klain is also known for his ability to handle high-stakes and fast-moving political crises. He was the lead Democratic lawyer for Mr. Gore during the 2000 election recount, and was later played by actor Kevin Spacey in the HBO drama about the disputed contest.
Mr. Klain is currently the president of Case Holdings and general counsel at Revolution LLC, companies that were founded by Steve Case of AOL. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School. He was a law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Byron White.
He served as chief of staff to Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. from 2009 to 2011, and held the same post from 1995 until 1999 for Vice President Al Gore.
On Thursday night, in extended remarks after meeting with several of his top aides working on the Ebola issue, Mr. Obama praised their work but said they are also responsible for other initiatives, including national security matters and other health care concerns.
'It may be appropriate for me to appoint an additional person, not because they haven't been doing an outstanding job, really working hard on this issue, but they are also responsible for a whole bunch of other stuff,' Mr. Obama told reporters.
He added that an Ebola 'czar' would make sense 'just to make sure that we are crossing all the 'ts' and dotting all the 'is' going forward.' He declined to say when he might make such an appointment.
Posted by Unknown on Friday, October 17, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
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