Ron Klain, the newly appointed White House Ebola response coordinator, was one of the senior White House officials who advised that President Obama should visit solar power company Solyndra in 2011, despite an auditor raising red flags about the company’s finances. According to The Washington Post, Klain was one of the “key players” in the scandal while he worked for Vice President Joe Biden: “Ron Klain, then Biden’s chief of staff, dismissed auditor’s concerns about Solyndra’s solvency, reasoning that all innovative companies come with risk.”
Another Solyndra email, reported by Fox News, indicated that Biden’s office were all fans of Solyndra, and that the staff “about had an orgasm” at the prospect of an Energy Department loan.
Klain, a Democratic operative who also served as chief of staff to Vice President Al Gore, had a hand in pushing for President Obama’s visit to a Solyndra factory in California during the 2010 midterms. ”Sounds like there are some risk factors here — but that’s true of any innovative company that POTUS would visit,” Klain wrote in an email the day before. “It looks like it is OK to me, but if you feel otherwise, let me know.”
In another email to Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett, he again stood up for Solyndra. “The reality is that if POTUS visited 10 such places over the next 10 months, probably a few will be belly-up by election day 2012.”
According to CNN’s Jake Tapper, Klain will report to National Security Advisor Susan Rice and homeland security adviser Lisa Monaco.
