by - Former White House chief of staff Ron Klain worked six days a week at the White House, he told the New Yorker.
- For the past two months, Sundays have been set aside for visiting his sick mother.
- She lives in Indiana.
For the past two months, Ron Klain has left his job as White House chief of staff in Washington, DC, one day a week to be with his ailing mother, who lives in Indiana.
Klain, 61, mentioned this logistical feat and example of devotion as an aside during an interview with Evan Osnos for the New Yorker, when explaining why he decided to leave the Biden White House after two years.
“For the last two months, too, my mother has been sick, and I’ve been working here six days a week and I come home to Indiana every Sunday morning and stay there late Sunday night,” he told Osnos. “And that also kind of weighs on me.”
Klain left the White House this month after spending his first two years in office leading the Biden team. He has been a part of Biden’s world for years, starting with him on the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1986 when Biden served as president, and later as Biden’s chief of staff when he was vice president.
Biden spoke of Klain’s mother during a White House chief of staff transition ceremony, when Klain handed over the reins to Jeff Zients. Klain’s mother, Sarann Klain Warner, a retired travel agent, was too ill to attend.
“Mom, if you can see this or if this is played for you, we love you,” Biden said. “We really do. We all love you, and we’re thinking about you a lot. You’ve raised one hell of a son. And you should be so proud. Ron is a credit to you, Mom.”
Other examples of Klain’s commitment to his mother have surfaced in the news over the years.
He grew up in a Jewish community in Indianapolis and never had a Christmas tree. Although he and his wife Monica Medina raised their children Jewish, they agreed to celebrate Christmas for her, he told the New York Times in 2007. But they always waited until after his mother’s annual visit in December to put up the tree. , he said the times.
Jewish Insider also noted that Klain said during a Zoom call with members of his childhood congregation that 2020 was the first year he was unable to attend his mother’s Passover Seder.
Klain Warner joined Twitter in 2019. She simply described herself as “Mother of 3 wonderful children, daughter of 9 wonderful grandchildren”.
