White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Jeff Zients removes a face mask as he prepares to speak at a press briefing at the White House, April 13, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)
President Joe Biden is expected to tap Jeff Zients, the administration’s former COVID-19 response coordinator, as his next chief of staff.
Biden’s current chief of staff, Ron Klain, is likely to leave the job following Biden’s State of the Union address on Feb. 7, The New York Times reported. Klain has held the position for the past two years.
The chief of staff heads the Executive Office of the President and is a cabinet position widely recognized as one of the most important, influential jobs in the White House. The details of the role differ across administrations, but generally, the chief of staff serves as the President’s primary aide and adviser across many different fronts.
For example, the chief of staff oversees the President’s daily operations as well as broader policy development. The staffer in the role also maintains the president’s schedule, advises the president on policy, hires and organizes staff, and controls the flow of information to the president, among other duties.
In his previous role Zients helped increase the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, but left the administration last April. Prior to that he held several positions under President Barack Obama, including director of the National Economic Council.
If appointed, Zients would begin the role at a critical time for Biden as he may soon announce his 2024 reelection bid and faces a special counsel investigation over mishandled classified documents.
State and county taxpayers will be asked to commit a record $850 million in public funds toward construction of the Buffalo Bills’ new stadium as part of a 30-year lease agreement.
As the war enters its second month, Russia may be changing course on its strategy in Ukraine. After suffering heavy losses, forces around the capital city of Kyiv appear to have stopped offensive operations and are now shifting their focus to taking over the south and east of the country. Terrell Starr, a foreign affairs reporter at The Atlantic Council, breaks down the latest from Kyiv. "Logistically this war has been a disaster. They have far more troops than [the] Ukrainian army has. What they don't have is good planning. The planning has been incredibly poor," he said.
Catching you up on what you Need to Know on Mar 28, 2022, with peace talks resuming in Ukraine as early as today, Colorado wildfires causing evacuations, Shanghai, China, ramping up restrictions once again, the Oscars debacle between Will Smith and Chris Rock, and more.
Volatility continues to be the name of the game when it comes to crypto. Bitcoin, the most valuable digital token, saw a small jump today - one of several small rallies throughout the month of March. Caitlin Cook, vice president of crypto education company Onramp Academy, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
As of March 2022, almost 200 Anti-LGBT+ bills have been introduced in state governments across the country — especially directed at the transgender community. Human Rights Campaign State Legislative Director and Senior Counsel Cathryn Oakley joined Cheddar News to discuss the deluge of legislation. "Unfortunately we are seeing these bills come at transgender youth from every conceivable direction," she said. "Every support that a trans kid has, whether that's their parents, whether that's their family, whether that's their teachers or their guidance counselors or their coaches, whether it's their teammates or the librarians and the books that they read, whether it's curriculum, whether it's even just the ability to acknowledge that LGBTQ people have existed throughout history and are important in the fabric of modern American society. The bills that we are seeing filed across the country are targeting all of those pieces."
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last week seemed to have put out a video that urged Ukrainians to put down their arms and surrender to Russia. It was later revealed that it was a “deepfake,” a computer-generated video to mimic the Ukrainian leader. Cheddar News speaks with security expert Morgan Wright about how the technology is being used in the war in Ukraine.
