General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums'Catastrophic Decision': Progressives Rip Choice of Jeff Zients for Chief of Staff
Reports Sunday that President Joe Biden has chosen Jeff Zients to replace outgoing White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain were met with alarm among progressive watchdogs, who pointed to Zients' disastrous tenure as the administration's coronavirus czar as well as his history in the corporate worldwhere he built a fortune investing in healthcare companies accused of fraud.
Klain, who developed a solid working relationship with progressives in Congress, is expected to depart shortly after Biden's State of the Union address on February 7.
Revolving Door Project executive director Jeff Hauser called the elevation of Zients to White House chief of staff a "catastrophic decision," saying in a statement that "the Biden administration has been at its best when it has been on the attack against corporate excesses that wide majorities of Americans find abhorrent."
"Americans are appalled by profiteering in healthcareJeff Zients has become astonishingly rich by profiteering in healthcare," said Hauser. "Americans are aghast at how social media companies have built monopolies and violated privacy lawsZients served on the Board of Directors of Facebook as it was defending itself against growing attacks from both political parties."
The Revolving Door Project's Daniel Boguslaw and Max Moran wrote for The American Prospect last year that Zientswho was replaced as Covid-19 response coordinator back in Aprilhas "controlled, invested in, and helped oversee" healthcare companies that "were forced to pay tens of millions of dollars to settle allegations of Medicare and Medicaid fraud."
https://www.commondreams.org/news/progressives-jeff-zients
msfiddlestix
(7,282 posts)I feel like my progressive friends have truly lost their ability to comprehend where the hell we are politically.
I guess it would have to take another five-ten years of the likes of tfg cult to totally take over before they finally effing get it.
CurtEastPoint
(18,647 posts)mopinko
(70,120 posts)in the face of a full on propaganda blitz against it?
Just A Box Of Rain
(5,104 posts)Common Dreams???
Fuck that!!!
Karma13612
(4,552 posts)Has some great experience and creds.
And with the nickname Mr. Fix-It, Im confident he will be perfect for right now.
Calista241
(5,586 posts)He's the guy who calls people and tells them the Presidents decision. He'll manage Biden's calendar, and call the people that don't get meetings to tell them they don't get a meeting; or vice versa.
The CoS's opinions don't really matter as much as people seem to think.
Captain Zero
(6,806 posts)He has worked for Biden forever. Even back in the Senate days.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)identity is opposition are just making up "the sky is falling" excuses to oppose. Except for the genuine irrational extremists among them who can rigidly equate business with evil, but their emotional distress is pathetic.
And of course you're right for opinions. CoSes are chosen and trusted to channel the president's.
It is still a hugely powerful and busy position within its limits of assisting the POTUS in his job. Any who implemented opinions the president didn't approve wouldn't last long at all. (Except in the broken WH of an astonishingly incompetent ex- president, of course, but that has nothing to do with normal.)
Response to douglas9 (Original post)
Celerity This message was self-deleted by its author.
Kid Berwyn
(14,908 posts)My throat hurts.
Thank you for the heads-up. TAP is TOPS!
inthewind21
(4,616 posts)Oh good lord.