Ethan Kanin

Ethan Kanin was the Secretary of Defense under President Wayne Palmer during Day 6 and White House Chief of Staff under President Allison Taylor during the events of Redemption and Day 7.

Day 6
Ethan Kanin was the highest ranking member of Cabinet within the presidential bunker during the events of Day 6. After the assassination attempt on President Wayne Palmer, Kanin conferenced with Vice President Noah Daniels over video phone. He suggested to Daniels that he should, given the President's condition, assume the responsibilities of the presidency. Daniels agreed and told Kanin he wanted to meet with Tom Lennox once he arrived at the White House.

Kanin confronted Reed Pollock, the Deputy Chief of Staff. He asked where Tom Lennox was. Reed lied about his location, saying that he was with the Attorney General, but Kanin knew this was a lie as he recently spoke to the latter. He ordered Agent Lowry to do a sweep of the bunker and find Tom Lennox. Two hours later, Daniels' assistant Lisa Miller arranged for the Cabinet to meet. Daniels announced his plans to release the full power of the military on Abu Fayed and Hamri Al-Assad's country if another nuclear bomb went off. Karen Hayes was convinced this would create another world war, as Russia and China would react to the attack.

CTU Los Angeles was able to prevent a nuclear drone from reaching San Francisco, and the drone crash landed in an industrial park. However, the suitcase nuke was damaged in the attack and radioactive poison was released. Vice President Daniels was convinced that this represented a nuclear attack on the United States and he decided to go forward with the nuclear strike. Kanin confirmed that the attack could happen within the next hour. A few hours later, the terrorist threat was neutralized, as Abu Fayed had been killed, and the suitcase nukes themselves secured, by Jack Bauer. Noah Daniels' nuclear strike plan had been aborted in the meantime.

By 5:00 AM, the United States government learned that an important device that could control Russia's nuclear armament had been passed along to Phillip Bauer. When CTU Los Angeles tracked him down to an oil platform ten miles offshore from California, Ethan Kanin advised Noah Daniels to authorize a full-scale aerial assault on the oil platform, despite knowing that Bauer held his son, Jack, hostageat the platform. Tom Lennox objected, arguing that they should not so easily approve sacrificing an innocent boy, but Noah agreed with Kanin and ordered the air strike.

After Day 6
Despite his serving her opposing party as Secretary of Defense, newly elected President Allison Taylor chose Kanin to serve as her Chief of Staff.

Redemption
After learning of President Daniels' decision to close the United States embassy in Sangala, Henry Taylor called Kanin to find out whether Daniels may have had an ulterior motive in doing so without consulting the President-elect.

Kanin later arrived to greet the Taylors at the Capitol building, and was present at her swearing-in and address to the nation.

Day 7
Ethan Kanin stayed beside President Allison Taylor throughout the events of Day 7, keeping her informed about the different situations going on, such as the near-collision at JFK, the arrest and further escape of Tony Almeida, and the demands of Iké Dubaku.

Kanin also informed First Gentleman Henry Taylor about the alleged causes of his son's death. He told Taylor that the President had decided to keep the details secret from him as not to grieve him. Later, Kanin was infuriated to learn from Agent Gedge that Taylor had gone to confront Roger's former girlfriend, Samantha Roth.

Kanin was the first at the Oval Office to witness the crash of Flight 131 over Washington, D.C.

Background information and notes

 * Kanin was named after Iowa Writers' Workshop faculty member Ethan Canin who is a longtime friend of 24 show-runner Howard Gordon and writer Alex Gansa.