Being a lobbyist for failed housing giant Fannie Mae seems like a relevant resume item for an intimate adviser of the president.
Yet somehow, in a 2,500-word profile on Biden insiders the New York Times brands as “the strategist, the guru, and the confidant,” the word “lobbyist” never appears. Nor does the article discuss Ron Klain’s past as a lobbyist.
Klain, “the strategist,” is described as the man who keeps President Joe Biden focused and prepares him for debates. Here’s the New York Times’s treatment of Klain’s pre-Biden past:
“He was not always by Mr. Biden’s side. … Mr. Klain was briefly chief of staff for Vice President Al Gore and oversaw the recount effort in Florida in 2000. (He was later portrayed in a movie by Kevin Spacey.) He was involved in John Kerry’s 2004 campaign and spent some years as an adviser to Steve Case, a founder of AOL.”
Omitted from this biography: Klain was a corporate lobbyist at O’Melveny & Myers for years.
He lobbied the federal government, including the U.S. Senate, in which Biden was a senior member, on behalf of U.S. Airways, ImClone, Time Warner, Cigna, and Fannie Mae, among others.
When Biden announced in 2020 that Klain would be his chief of staff, I summarized Klain’s lobbying career thus:
“His clients included Fannie Mae, the government-backed housing-bubble inflator that failed and required a taxpayer bailout. Klain lobbied for Fannie Mae from 2002 through 2005, the period when Fannie Mae successfully fought off stricter oversight from lawmakers concerned about taxpayer exposure.”
“In the Bush years, half the purpose of Fannie Mae seemed to be enriching politically connected Democrats, and Klain didn’t miss out. Using an implicit taxpayer bailout, the company bought up a trillion dollars’ worth of subprime mortgages and fought off regulation through a well-funded, well-connected network of revolving-door consultants and lobbyists like Klain. But Fannie Mae wasn’t Klain’s only lobbying client.”
“Klain was also a lobbyist for ImClone, a pharmaceutical company that would be investigated by Congress for fraud. ImClone’s founder and CEO, Sam Waksal, would be convicted for fraud.”
“AOL Time Warner paid Klain as a lobbyist from 2001 through 2005. He lobbied the federal government to allow U.S. Airways’s merger with United and Airborne Express’s merger with DHL.”
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“Klain also lobbied for ethanol producer Imperial Bioresources. Cigna appears as a lobbying client in the congressional database, but records do not indicate lobbying activity. Klain also lobbied on behalf of the Coalition for Asbestos Resolution, described by liberal critics as a ‘front group‘ for the GAF corporation, a roofing-materials manufacturer.”
It seems some of this lobbying past would be relevant.