Neera Tanden, nominated by President Joe Biden as Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), attends a hearing with the Senate Committee on the Budget on Capitol Hill in Washington, February 10, 2021.
Anna Moneymaker | Swimming Pool | Reuters
President Joe Biden said on Tuesday that at her request he was withdrawing the nomination of Neera Tanden as its budget chief, a step that follows signs that she would not be able to win Senate confirmation due to critical reports on Twitter about past legislators .
Biden also said he expects Tanden, whom he has appointed as director of the office of management and budget, to give another “role in my administration”. But the president does not identify what that job might be.
Teeth extraction is the first case that a nominee from the Biden cabinet has not obtained Senate approval.
In a letter to Biden, Tanden writes: “I appreciate how hard you and your team worked in the White House to win my confirmation.”
“Unfortunately, it now seems clear that there is no way forward to get confirmation, and I do not want the continued consideration of my nomination to be a distraction from your other priorities,” wrote Tanden, president of the Left-wing Center. . for American Progress.
Teeth’s nomination was in doubt after three senators – Joe Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia, and Mitt Romney, R-Utah, and Republican Maine Susan Collins – said they would vote against her because of her history in which legislators have been criticized on both sides of the political corridor. .
The criticism was preserved in the more than 1,000 tweets that Teeth allegedly deleted before the confirmation process began.
Democrats hold majority control in the Senate at the smallest margin. Two independent caucuses with 48 Democratic senators, giving them the same number of votes as the 50-senator Republican caucus.
Vice President Kamala Harris, a Democrat, holds the casting vote in the Senate and gives her party the approval of nominations and legislation if the caucus remains uniform.
Manchin’s refusal to support Tanden, coupled with the difficulties of getting a Republican to support her, made Tanden’s path to confirmation very narrow.
During her confirmation hearing, Tanden was questioned about her past tweets, including comparing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., To Harry Potter villain Voldemort, and writing that ‘vampires have more heart’ than Senator Ted Cruz, a Republican from Texas.
Sen. Vermont Independent Bernie Sanders has also shown in the past Tanden’s “brutal attacks” against him and other progressives, especially when Sanders acted against former Senator and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for the 2016 Democratic nomination. adviser of the Clinton campaign.
Teeth said during her confirmation hearing: “I regret it terribly and apologize for my language and my previous language.”
In a statement issued by the White House, Biden said of Tanden: ‘I have the utmost respect for her performance, her experience and her advice, and I look forward to having her serve in a role in my administration. . ‘
“She will bring valuable perspective and insight into our work,” the president said.