Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Obama Appoints Ron Klain as Ebola ‘Czar’

(Reuters) – President Barack Obama has asked former White House official Ron Klain to coordinate the U.S. government’s response to the Ebola outbreak, an administration official said on Friday.

Klain will report to homeland security adviser Lisa Monaco and national security adviser Susan Rice, the official said.

“Klain, an attorney, comes to the job with strong management credentials, extensive federal government experience overseeing complex operations and good working relationships with leading members of Congress, as well as senior Obama administration officials, including the president,” the official said.

CNN reported earlier Friday that the president would appoint Klain as the Ebola “czar” to coordinate the U.S. efforts to combat the deadly virus.

Ron Klain Image by Wikipedia

In choosing Klain, Obama is turning to a trusted former aide who had been part of the White House inner circle earlier in his administration.

Klain also served as Chief of Staff to former vice presidents Al Gore and Joseph Biden.

Raised in a Jewish home in Indianapolis, Klain attended Harvard Law School and went on to become an influential Democratic Party insider.

In 1994, Time named Klain one of the “50 most promising leaders in America” under the age of 40, and in 1999, Washingtonian magazine named him the top D.C. lawyer under the age of 40.

The decision to appoint a so-called Ebola czar follows the infection of a second Dallas nurse who had treated the first Ebola patient to be diagnosed on U.S. soil, Thomas Eric Duncan.

The Obama administration has faced sharp criticism from some lawmakers over efforts to contain the disease at home.

U.S. lawmakers held a congressional hearing on Thursday about the administration’s handling of the outbreak and some called for a ban on travel from West Africa, where the disease has killed nearly 4,500 people.

Rising public anxiety over the disease prompted Obama to cancel two days of political events weeks before Nov. 4 congressional elections.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.