JOE BIDEN, who has declared victory for the 2020 U.S. presidential election, has named Ron Klain his White House chief of staff. The announcement of a chief of staff typically comes as one of the first big decisions for a president-elect — crucial because the person in that role can help determine a president’s style of governing. In a statement Wednesday night, Biden praised his newly chosen chief of staff, citing Klain’s “invaluable” efforts with the Ebola outbreak in 2014 and the economic crisis in 2009. “Ron has been invaluable to me over the many years that we have worked together, including as we rescued the American economy from one of the worst downturns in our history in 2009 and later overcame a daunting public health emergency in 2014,” Biden said. Klain served as chief of staff to Biden during Barack Obama’s first term and was chief of staff to Vice President Al Gore in the mid-1990s. He also served as a key adviser on the Biden campaign. The choice of Klain underscores his priority on the coronavirus response. Biden is expected to announce additional Cabinet-level positions later this month. Biden will be strategic in his announcements, sources said, aligning personnel announcements with what his incoming administration believes are the most crucial issues facing the nation: the coronavirus pandemic and health care. Biden’s administration proposal prioritizes the pandemic, front-line workers’ health and recession recovery. Other planned reform includes education, climate change, immigration and a new tax plan. Biden has repeatedly emphasized his plans to allow scientists to lead the federal coronavirus response and has championed mask-wearing. He has promised to expand coronavirus contact tracing and at-home testing in order to help stop the spread. The former vice president wants to recruit at least 100,000 Americans for a “public health jobs corps” of contact tracers to help track and curb outbreaks. He says he’ll establish at least 10 mobile testing sites and drive-through COVID testing facilities in each state to speed up testing and protect health care workers. Biden also plans to provide a daily White House report on how many COVID tests have been performed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, state and local health authorities, and private labs. Through his “Buy America” plan, Biden intends to create 5 million new jobs. In this plan, the government would spend US$400 billion to buy American products and services, while US$300 billion would go towards research and development. Half of the R&D money would be put towards clean energy, creating and securing jobs, and industry leadership. The Biden campaign claims that this package would be the largest of it’s kind since World War II. Biden’s climate change plan, called the “Clean Energy Revolution,” would invest US$2 trillion into combating the planet’s greatest threat. He also promises free pre-kindergarten for children, and supports putting early childhood development experts in community health centers. Biden’s immigration policies would effectively reverse most of Trump’s. With Biden in power, the U.S. would no longer separate families at the borders of the country. Biden would raise annual refugee admissions to 125,000 from its record low of 22,491 in 2018. Biden would set out a roadmap for undocumented immigrants who are seeking U.S. citizenship, provided that they pay taxes and pass a background check. He would address immigration issues at the U.S.-Mexican border head-on and would provide a US$4 billion aid package to Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, whose regions are ridden with violence and trafficking. He has called for higher taxes on corporations and the rich while expanding tax credits for middle-class and lower-income Americans. Days before he left the White House in 2017, President Barack Obama surprised Biden with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, declaring his septuagenarian, white-haired lieutenant “the best vice president America’s ever had,” a “l(fā)ion of American history.” The tribute marked the presumed end of a long public life that put Biden in the orbit of the Oval Office for 45 years — yet, through a combination of family and personal tragedy, his own political missteps and sheer bad timing, had never allowed him to sit behind the Resolute Desk himself. It turns out the pinnacle would not elude Biden after all. His moment just hadn’t yet arrived. Biden, 77, declared himself the 46th president last Saturday in an election that played out against the backdrop of a pandemic, its economic fallout and a national reckoning on racism. There are no sure paths to a post held by only 44 men in more than two centuries, but Biden’s is among the most unlikely — even for a man who had aspired to the job for more than three decades. He has been running for U.S. president since 1987. Two attempts failed but the setbacks were nothing in comparison to the personal tragedy he has overcome to reach the Oval Office. Raised in Scranton, Pennsylvania, he was a poor student but became class president. He suffered with a stutter but reduced his impediment by reciting poetry in front of a mirror. On a spring break trip to the Caribbean, he met university student Neilia Hunter and “fell ass over tin cup in love.” Encouraged by his new love, he gained a place at Syracuse University Law School upon his graduation from Delaware in 1965. The couple married the next year. At best, he was a mediocre law student but in 1968, Biden moved back to Wilmington to begin practicing at a law firm. He also became an active member of the Democratic Party and in 1970 was elected to the local council. While serving as councillor, in 1971, Biden, by then a father of 3, started his own law firm. A year later he beat Republican incumbent Caleb Boggs for the Senate. But a week before Christmas 1972, his wife and baby daughter Naomi were killed in a car accident. His sons, Beau and Hunter, survived. Biden was inconsolable, recalling: “I began to understand how despair led people to just cash in. How suicide wasn’t just an option but a rational option. I felt God had played a horrible trick on me and I was angry.” But determined to honor his promise to the people of Delaware, he continued in the Senate commuting three hours a day so he could see his children at night. Biden found love again after going on a blind date with Jill Jacobs. They married in 1977 and had daughter Ashley four years later. Biden first entered the race for the presidency in 1987 but he dropped out after three months due to a supposed plagiarism scandal involving Britain’s former Labor leader Neil Kinnock. He began a speech by claiming he was the first in “a thousand generations” to go to university in his family. Kinnock had made the same statements in a past speech. Biden later admitted he had family members who had gone to university before him. Before being chosen as Obama’s vice president, he had his own presidential campaign for the 2008 election before dropping out. After seven years at Obama’s side, he was again dealt a devastating blow. Son Beau, once attorney general of Delaware, died aged 46 after falling ill with brain cancer. His younger son Hunter almost cost him the White House this time round. Trump accused him of wrongdoing in regards to Ukraine while acting as Obama’s deputy, which he vehemently denies. An alleged email surfaced, in which an adviser from Ukrainian energy firm Burisma apparently thanked Hunter for inviting him to meet his father. Biden’s son was a director on the board. The allegations failed to derail Biden, who is now on the verge of becoming America’s oldest leader. Known for being one of the world’s most empathetic politicians, he hopes to heal the deeply divided States. (SD-Agencies) | 