Where’s Biden’s chief of staff amid Kabul chaos? He’s on Twitter

The White House chief of staff’s name is Ron Klain. Most Americans couldn’t pick him out of a lineup. But as the president’s top adviser, he wields tremendous power — perhaps more than any other unelected official in Washington. 

So, one would think that Klain would be part of the president’s team – front and center on broadcast and in print media – to address the chaos in Kabul. But Klain is nowhere to be found. 

Except on Twitter.  

Over the past several days while Afghanistan has devolved into chaos, while Americans are being beaten by the Taliban, while Afghans loyal to the U.S. are reportedly being executed and as al Qaeda may be reorganizing under Taliban rule, Klain has retweeted the sentiments of media figures such as MSNBC’s Joy Reid, who has accused the press of being too focused on Afghanistan and too tough on the Biden administration. 

The MSNBC host also insists that former President Trump and what she calls his “venal attitude” toward Muslims and “all nonwhite immigrants” is to blame for President Biden’s decision to pull U.S. forces out in time for the 20th anniversary of 9/11, a sentiment Klain must agree with, given his retweets of Reid. 

This is case closed for me. We are where we are in Afghanistan because of Trump’s surrender to the Taliban and his administration’s venal attitude toward Muslim and really all nonwhite immigrants. The media should track down Stephen Miller, Pompeo, Trump & his secdefs and query. https://t.co/ZpefgMR5tL

— Joy-Ann (Pro-Democracy) Reid (@JoyAnnReid) August 21, 2021

Klain retweeted the controversial Reid five times on Thursday and Friday alone.

Reid, by the way, recently compared the American religious right to the Afghan Taliban. 

“This [the Taliban takeover] is the real-life Handmaid’s Tale. A true cautionary tale for the U.S., which has our own far religious right dreaming of a theocracy that would impose a particular brand of Christianity, drive women from the workforce and solely into childbirth, and control all politics,” she tweeted. 

This is the person with whom the president’s top adviser apparently agrees.

Klain also has been retweeting other media personalities, including Washington Post columnist Jen Rubin, CNN’s John Harwood and Vox’s Aaron Rupar. What Klain hasn’t been doing is facing the fire, even though Secretary of State Antony Blinken appeared on Fox News Sunday and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was on ABC.

Notably absent from the Sunday talk-show circuit: the commander in chief (back home in Delaware), Vice President Kamala Harris (on a pre-planned trip to Vietnam) and Chief of Staff Klain, who is speaking with his thumbs these days in attacking CNN reporter Clarissa Ward’s reporting on the ground at Hamid Karzai International Airport.

“I’m sitting here for 12 hours in the airport, 8 hours on the airfield and I haven’t seen a single US plane take off. How on Earth are you going to evacuate 50,000 people in the next two weeks? It just, it can’t happen,” Ward said in a report shared by a colleague.  

“We evacuated 5700 people in the past 24 hours. The best military operation in the world is in charge,” Klain retorted. 

We evacuated 5700 people in the past 24 hours. The best military operation in the world is in charge. https://t.co/pTfaalv6YG

— Ronald Klain (@WHCOS) August 20, 2021

More than a few pundits noted Klain’s response or wondered if the chief of staff could make better use of his time, given the crisis that continues to deteriorate fast. 

Is the White House accusing a CNN reporter on the ground of lying about the evacuation? What credibility does the administration have left to even attempt to dispute what Clarissa Ward is reporting? https://t.co/IguAYv5McR

— Stephen Gutowski (@StephenGutowski) August 20, 2021

Ron Klain, who should have better things to do, is trying to counter-message a journalist on the spot risking her life covering the clusterfark Ron Klain has a hand in creating.

No wonder the White House is in disarray with such a man with those priorities at the helm as CoS. https://t.co/FcSuS0O7w7

— Andrew Donaldson (@four4thefire) August 20, 2021

Dunking on @clarissaward, one of the few people actually telling us what’s really going on. Makes sense. #jackass https://t.co/tFEVhg7njf

— Tammy Bruce (@HeyTammyBruce) August 21, 2021

Did they go out by train? How is it possible a reporter on the scene (@clarissaward) didn’t notice 5,700 people flown out??https://t.co/cXLAOajJ5Q

— Jeryl Bier (@JerylBier) August 20, 2021

Add it all up, and we have the president getting fact-checked into oblivion about various claims he made on Friday:

President Biden on Friday vowed to evacuate all Americans out of Afghanistan and defended his administration from criticism over the withdrawal.

But in doing so, he made several misleading or false claims. Here’s a fact-check. https://t.co/k1TgxsirC3

— The New York Times (@nytimes) August 21, 2021

Meanwhile, we have a vice president who is on an international trip that doesn’t involve Afghanistan. Later this week, she will spend time campaigning for California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D).

Harris to campaign for Newsom in California next week https://t.co/e9qn2QQKWA pic.twitter.com/WivEIRixHf

— The Hill (@thehill) August 20, 2021

Perhaps the president’s chief of staff thinks a few retweets can change the tsunami of plummeting trust, credibility and competence that’s drowning Team Biden. 

Joe Concha is a media and politics columnist for The Hill.