President Biden recently withdrew the nomination of Neera Tanden to his Cabinet for the Director of the Office of Management and Budget. He released a statement that Neera has formally withdrawn her name from the nomination. Tanden was facing opposition from senators over toxic tweets against both Republicans and progressives.
Tandem wrote on Twitter that Susan Collins is “the worst,” that Tom Cotton is a “fraud,” and that “vampires have more heart than Ted Cruz.” She even frequently referred to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell as “Moscow Mitch” and “Voldemort.” She deleted nearly 1,000 tweets after President Biden announced her nomination.
“I appreciate how hard you and your team at the White House have worked to win my confirmation. Unfortunately, it now seems clear that there is no path forward to gain confirmation, and I do not want continued consideration of my nomination to be a distraction from your other priorities,” Tanden wrote to Biden.
President Biden accepted the withdrawal and said he has the ‘utmost respect’ for her record of accomplishment and her experience. “She will bring valuable perspective and insight to our work,” he adds.
Tanden’s toxic tweeting even convinced Sen. Joe Manchin that she was not the right person for the job. Without Manchin, Tandem would’ve faced a difficult road to a majority vote in the Senate. He wrote that her “overly partisan statements” would create a toxic and detrimental impact on the working relationships between members of Congress and the next director of the Office of Management and Budget. “For this reason, I cannot support her nomination,” Manchin explained.
Tanden’s ruthless tweets even targeted Senate Budget Chair Bernie Sanders, a political nemesis during her 2016 push to get Hillary Clinton elected president. She tweeted three years ago that “Russia did a lot more to help Bernie than the DNC’s random internal emails did to help Hillary.” Sanders pointed out during her second confirmation hearing that her vicious attacks weren’t just made against Republicans, but against progressives and people he’s worked with personally.
She also faced scrutiny after accepting millions of dollars in corporate donations for one of the nation’s most prominent liberal think tanks, the Center for American Progress. Many lawmakers, including Sanders, were concerned that her leadership nomination was just about creating an economy that works for wealthy campaign contributors instead of the American people.
As a former Obama administration official and adviser to Bill and Hillary Clinton, Tanden has been incredibly active in Democratic politics. She is Biden’s first Cabinet nominee to be withdrawn from consideration and is expected to be appointed to an administration role.
Shalanda Young, a potential replacement for Tanden, underwent a confirmation hearing to be the deputy OMB director and has been seen as the most likely nominee. “You’ll get my support, maybe for both jobs,” Sen. Lindsey Graham said during the hearing.
The Biden Administration thought Tanden could delete a few tweets and lawmakers would turn a blind eye to how she would treat her colleagues. They thought wrong.
