Two former White House chiefs of staff weighed in Wednesday against the idea of Joe Biden's chief of staff Ron Klain's active Twitter use – in a warning Klain would ignore just hours later, leaving White House trying to explain away his missive on inflation.
Josh Bolten, who served as chief of staff to President George W. Bush, noted in a panel discussion this week that he deliberately kept a low public profile, and said flatly Klain's public tweets weren't the best use of his time.
'I would never have done that. And frankly I don't know how he does it – how he actually keeps up with what he's supposed to be focused on, which I think he is keeping up, and doing all this public communicating at the same time,' he said in a "discussion at American University's Sine Institute of Policy & Politics.
He spoke of how 'an errant tweet from Ron Klain can throw a news cycle spinning off in a bad direction.'
Former White House chiefs of staff Josh Bolten and Jack Lew warned against current chief Ron Klain's frequent tweets – hours before Klain 'liked' a tweet about inflation and supply chains
'I’m both impressed and sort of unimpressed that he gives a significant amount of his time to that,' Bolten weighed in. Bolten now chairs the Business Roundtable.
Former Barack Obama Chief of Staff Jack Lew also argued against the idea, telling interviewer Tara Palmeri he doesn't maintain a Twitter account.
'I don't think that's a good way for public policy to be made,' he said of Twitter generally.
'I personally think senior officials should have mediated social media presences, if they have them at all, and avoid getting into the back and forth,' said Lew. But he noted that Klain has schooled numerous Democratic presidential candidates in debate prep sessions and that 'Ron is as good of a debater as you’re going to find.'
He said he was as good as anyone at 'not making mistakes - but you don't get to make any mistakes.'
White House chief of staff Ron Klain liked a tweet calling inflation and supply chain issues a 'high class problems'
At Thursday's White House press briefing, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Klain's pot-stirring Twitter habits are 'not a top priority' after the White House chief of staff claimed Thursday that inflation is a problem for the rich.
Klain claimed Wednesday evening that the current U.S. economic issues, including inflation and supply chain delays, are just 'high class problems'. It was a missive meant designed to convey that U.S. economic performance could be a lot worse than it is, with inflation linked to growth.
But it came on a day when the White House had organized a Biden event meant to demonstrate he was keenly focused on the issue and attuned to holdups that could put holiday shopping and deliveries at risk.
He was responding to a tweet from Obama's former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers who said problems would be 'much worse' if the unemployment rate was still 10%
Klain also retweeted a post from Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy on claiming people are quitting their jobs to start better jobs as minimum wage jobs see a shortage of workers
Jason Furman, a Harvard Economics professor and former chairman of President Barack Obama's Council of Economic Advisers, tweeted: 'Most
