Former White House chief of staff Ron Klain blasted his former boss, President Biden, for not focusing on key issues like inflation and grocery prices in leaked audio, according to a new report.
The audio reveals Klain getting heated about Biden’s focus on infrastructure, saying there is “too much talking about bridges” and not enough about “eggs and milk,” Politico reported.
“I think the president is out there too much talking about bridges,” Klain reportedly says in the audio. “He does two or three events a week where he’s cutting a ribbon on a bridge. And here’s a bridge. Like I tell you, if you go into the grocery store, you go to the grocery store and, you know, eggs and milk are expensive, the fact that there’s a f—ing bridge is not [inaudible].”
“He’s not a congressman. He’s not running for Congress,” Klain continued. “I think it’s kind of a fool’s errand. I think that [it] also doesn’t get covered that much because, look, it’s a f—ing bridge. Like it’s a bridge, and how interesting is the bridge? It’s a little interesting but it’s not a lot interesting.”
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The audio was recorded at a private event hosted by the publication “Democracy: A Journal of Ideas,” at which Klain was a speaker. Klain served as White House chief of staff from Biden’s inauguration until early February 2023.
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Klain elaborated on his statement in a subsequent interview with Politico, but he did not walk back on the substance of the criticism.
“The president’s most effective economic message is contrast around whose side are you on, and compassion for the [pinch] of family budgets, and his agenda to bring down costs and raise incomes — and that lauding achievements — especially ones with abstract benefits — is less persuasive with voters,” Klain told the outlet.
White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates addressed Klain’s remarks.
“Like Ron says, President Biden is crisscrossing the country building on his State of the Union message, highlighting that he is fighting to grow the middle class and lower costs like prescription drugs while blocking the trickle-down agenda Republican officials have proposed on behalf of rich special interests, including Medicare cuts and tax giveaways to big corporations,” Bates told Politico.
Biden put a heavy focus on infrastructure in March, going on a multiday tour of Wisconsin and Michigan to announce $3.3 billion for infrastructure projects in disadvantaged communities.
“We’re rebuilding the roads, we’re filling in the cracks in the sidewalk, we’re creating spaces to live and work and play safely, and to breathe clean air, and to shop at a nearby grocery stocked with fresh and healthy food,” he said at an event in Milwaukee at the time.
“You’ve lived and felt decisions made decades ago,” Biden said. “Today, today, we’re making decisions to transform your lives for decades to come.”
The $3.3 billion in grants announced at the event covered 132 total projects, including in Atlanta, Los Angeles and Philadelphia, as well as Birmingham, Alabama; Syracuse, New York; and Toledo, Ohio. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said that some of the projects are relatively modest and can be completed in “short order,” while others are “massive and ambitious undertakings that will take many years.”
