Klain joined the Clinton-Gore campaign in 1992 and was involved in both of
Bill Clinton's campaigns. He oversaw Clinton's judicial nominations, and was General Counsel to Al Gore's recount committee in 2000 election. Klain worked closely with Clinton aide Bruce Reed in formulating Clinton's "100,000 cops" proposal of his 1992 campaign,[
citation needed] which has been described as "not [being] the primary or even secondary factor in the dramatic reduction in crime during the 1990's".
[2] In the White House, Klain was Associate Counsel to the President, directing judicial selection efforts, and led the team that won confirmation of
Supreme Court Associate Justice
Ruth Bader Ginsburg. In 1994 he became Chief of Staff and Counselor to Attorney General
Janet Reno and in 1995 Assistant to the President, and Chief of Staff to
Al Gore.[
citation needed]
Gore campaign 1999-2000
During Klain's tenure as Gore's Chief of Staff he was seen as too loyal to Clinton by some longtime Gore advisors and in 1999 feuding broke out between Clinton and Gore loyalists in 1999. Klain was ousted by Gore campaign chairman
Tony Coelho in August 1999. In October 1999, he joined the Washington, D.C. office of the law firm of
O'Melveny & Myers. In 2000, Klain returned to the Gore campaign, once Coelho was replaced by
William M. Daley who hired Klain for a senior position in the Gore campaign and then named him General Counsel of Gore's Recount Committee.[
citation needed]
Lobbying
Klain was signed up as a lobbyist for
Fannie Mae until 2005 whom he helped overcome "regulatory issues".
[3]
2004–2008
During the 2004 US presidential campaign early primaries, Klain worked as an adviser to
Wesley Clark. During the general election, Klain was heavily involved behind the scenes in
John Kerry's campaign.
[4]
Klain served as an informal adviser to
Evan Bayh, who is from Klain's home state of Indiana. In 2005, Klain left his partnership at O'Melveny & Myers to become Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Revolution LLC, a technology
venture capital firm, launched by
AOL co-founder
Steve Case.[
citation needed]. As of October 2014 he is General Counsel at Revolution LLC and President of Case Holdings.
[5]
Obama administration 2008-present
On November 12, 2008,
Roll Call announced that Klain had been chosen to serve as
Chief of Staff to
Vice President Joe Biden, the same role he served for Gore.
[6][7][8]
Klain had worked with Biden previously, having served as counsel to the
United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary while Biden chaired that committee and assisted Biden's speechwriting team during the
1988 presidential campaign.
[9]
Klain was mentioned as a possible replacement for White House Chief of Staff
Rahm Emanuel,
[10] but opted to leave the White House for a position in the private sector in January 2011.
[8]
In 2011, amid concerns about whether the now-defunct solar-panel company
Solyndra was viable, Klain approved an Obama visit, stating, "The reality is that if POTUS visited 10 such places over the next 10 months, probably a few will be belly-up by election day 2012."
[11]
On October 17, 2014, Klain was appointed the "
Ebola response coordinator" or, less officially, Ebola "czar"
[5] by
President Obama, to help coordinate the nation's response to the
Ebola virus.
[5][12][13][14] His appointment has been criticized because he "has no record or expertise in Ebola specifically or public health in general".
[13]
