Biden will tap former COVID-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients as his next White House chief of staff, succeeding Ron Klain: report

• President Biden has tapped Jeff Zients to be his next chief of staff, per The Washington Post.
• Zients would replace Ron Klain, a longtime aide who has been chief of staff since January 2021.

President Joe Biden will tap Jeff Zients to become his next White House chief of staff, succeeding current chief of staff Ron Klain, according to four people with knowledge of the decision who spoke with The Washington Post.

Zients — a one-time White House counselor — oversaw the administration's COVID-19 response efforts, which included the massive push to vaccinate millions of Americans across the country. He left the White House last April but returned in the fall to aid Klain in preparing for staff changes after the 2022 midterm elections, which saw Democrats avoid the electoral thrashing that many political observers had predicted.

In recent weeks, Klain had tasked Zients with a range of assignments, which several people saw as a way to prepare the government official for the chief of staff role.

Zients will be tasked with steering the administration through divided government, with a GOP House majority eager to probe Biden, along with the start of what is expected to be the president's 2024 reelection bid.

A Washington, DC native and graduate of Duke University, Zients had a long career in the private sector before joining the administration of President Barack Obama in 2009 as the deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget.

From March 2014 to January 2017, Zients served as the director of the National Economic Council.

He then came onboard at the start of the Biden administration in January 2021, serving as both a counselor and the coronavirus response coordinator until April 2022.

Insider reached out to the White House for comment.