President-elect Biden appoints longtime adviser as Chief of Staff

On Wednesday, President-elect Joe Biden named his longtime adviser Ron Klain as the White House Chief of Staff, as his first major appointment in building his administration; regardless of whether President Trump formally concedes.

Biden has worked with Klain for decades, hiring him as an adviser during his earlier Presidential campaigns, and eventually appointing him as his Chief of Staff under the Obama Administration.

Seen as a trusted and competent political aide, Klain has also worked with Vice President Al Gore under the Bill Clinton Administration, and was appointed as President Obama's Ebola national response coordinator.

As Biden's Chief of Staff under the Obama Administration, Klain also helped to oversee the implementation of a $787 billion Recovery Act to boost the American economy after the global financial crisis in 2007/08.

In a statement, President-elect Biden mentioned that “Ron has been invaluable to me over the many years that we have worked together, including as we rescued the American economy from one of the worst downturns in our history in 2009 and later overcame a daunting public health emergency in 2014".

Biden added that "His deep, varied experience and capacity to work with people all across the political spectrum is precisely what I need in a White House chief of staff as we confront this moment of crisis and bring our country together again". Klain described his appointment as the “honor of a lifetime”.

As President-elect Biden moves forward with the transition, President Trump has outrightly refused to concede, as his campaign has continued its legal efforts to overturn the results in key states.