Hi, I'm Dan Pramack, and welcome to Axios Recap, brought to you by Amazon. Today's Saturday,

March 13th, and we're looking back at this same week last year. The week America changed.

This is our COVID-19 decision-makers series.

Conversations about some of the most consequential decisions made this time in 2020.

Today we take stock of the decisions made during that week with someone who says he would have made them differently.

Ron Claim, the former Obolazar under President Obama, and now President Biden's

chief of staff. Clayne was outside the White House in March 2020, but he was a regular media

presence, giving interviews about how the pandemic response was falling short as the virus spiraled

out of control. Behind the scenes, Clayne had Joe Biden's ear.

As Biden became the frontrunner for the Democratic Party that week,

Clayne was able to advise him on what would become the defining issue of the 2020 election.

We'll sit down with Ron Clayne to hear about that week from his perspective in 15 seconds.

We're joined now by White House Chief of Staff Ron Clayne.

Ron, what's your most vivid memory from the week of the shutdown?

On the night of the shutdown, I had been scheduled to be a guest on Rachel Maddow for like a five-minute segment to talk about my views on COVID and how

Trump was botching it. And so I went to New York. I was on her show. And over the course of her show,

first Trump gave his remarks to the country, addressed the country that night. And I commented on that.

I thought you could just tell how badly he was mishandling it from those remarks. And then while I sat

there, the news that Tom Hanks was sick came in, the news that the NBA was shutting down came in.

And, you know, just to kind of experience this, like, live on national television as it was unfolding,

you know, was just really incredible. And I, you know, finished your your show I think it went late I

finished like a 1030 whenever it was I went back to my hotel in New York slept

...