What It Takes to Be White House Chief of Staff

Published: July 7, 2023, 1:46 p.m.

b'The White House chief-of-staff role is the hardest gig in Washington, D.C. Dick Cheney blamed the job for giving him his first heart attack, during the Ford Administration. A hapless chief of staff can break a Presidency; an effective one was nicknamed the Velvet Hammer. In January, Joe Biden\\u2019s first chief of staff, Ron Klain, was replaced by Jeffrey Zients. In a conversation from last winter, the staff writers Susan B. Glasser, Jane Mayer, and Evan Osnos use Klain\\u2019s departure as a jumping-off point to discuss what it\\u2019s actually like to run a White House.'