Neera Tanden, President Joe Biden’s nominee for director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), attends a hearing with the Senate Budget Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, February 10, 2021.
Anna Moneymaker | Swimming pool | Reuters
President Joe Biden said on Tuesday that he is withdrawing Neera Tanden’s nomination as his budget chief at her request, a move that came after signs she would not receive confirmation from the Senate due to previous Twitter critical reports about lawmakers.
Biden also said he expected Tanden, whom he had addressed as director of the Office of Management and Budget, to take another “role in my administration.” But the president does not know what that job could be.
Tanden’s withdrawal is the first case of a Biden cabinet candidate failing to get Senate approval.
In a letter to Biden, Tanden wrote, “I appreciate how hard you and your White House team worked to get my confirmation.”
“Unfortunately, it now seems clear that there is no way forward to get confirmation, and I don’t want the ongoing consideration of my nomination to be a distraction from your other priorities,” wrote Tanden, who chaired the left-wing think tank Center. for American Progress.
Tanden’s nomination was in question after three senators – Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat, and Mitt Romney, R-Utah and Maine Republican Susan Collins – said they would vote against her for her history criticizing lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle. . .
That criticism was filed in the more than 1,000 tweets Tanden reportedly deleted before the confirmation process began.
Democrats hold the majority in the Senate by the smallest margins. Two independent caucus with 48 Democratic senators, giving them the same number of votes as the Republican caucus with 50 senators.
Vice President Kamala Harris, a Democrat, keeps the state of affairs in the Senate and gives her party approval of nominations and legislation if the caucus remains united.
Manchin’s refusal to support Tanden, coupled with the difficulty of getting a Republican to support her, narrowed Tanden’s path to validation.
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, writing that “ vampires have more heart ” than Senator Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican.
Senator Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent, had also highlighted Tanden’s “brutal attacks” against him and other progressives in the past, most notably when Sanders ran against former Senator and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for the 2016 Democratic nomination. Clinton.
At her confirmation hearings, Tanden said, “I am deeply sorry and apologize for my language and some of my past language.”
Biden said in a White House statement on Teeth, “I have the utmost respect for her track record, her experience, and her counsel, and I look forward to having her play a role in my government.”
“It will give our work valuable perspective and insight,” said the president.
White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain had said last week that if Tanden was not confirmed, “We will find another place for her to serve in the government that does not require confirmation by the Senate.”