Biden and his aides insist that Tanden’s prospects are not doomed. But his fate now depends on Senator Lisa Murkowski stepping out to save the nomination. Even if the If an independent-minded Alaskan Republican did that, the saga would still represent one of the biggest mistakes of the still young Biden presidency, which raises questions about the White House’s political acumen and its ability to manage Hill relations. The president himself seemed to accept on Tuesday that Tanden’s candidate could end in defeat.
“Let’s push,” said Biden on Tuesday. “We still think there is a shot, a good shot.”
Tanden’s nomination was in danger last Friday when Senator Joe Manchin (DW.Va.) announced his opposition, a fact that took Democrats by surprise. But the seeds of his rocky reception at Hill were planted with White House miscalculations weeks earlier – among them, that moderate Senate Democrats would support the president’s list of nominees and that Republican resistance would lessen.
“Here, the opposition is always looking for someone who can fight. And it would be the most obvious to slaughter the herd, ”said a Democratic senator, referring to the Republican Party’s opposition wall that Tanden faced from the start.
For a while, the White House felt that Tanden would avoid his current fate. She atoned for her now infamous behavior on Twitter and presented her personal story of a miserable life, living on food stamps and raised by a single mother. And allies like the previous ones Senate Democratic majority leader Harry Reid, who frequently consults the White House, predicted that both parties would accept due to the historical nature of his nomination: Tanden would become the first South Asian woman to head the agency. Inside the White House, endorsements from the Chamber of Commerce and former Indiana governor Mitch Daniels – himself a former head of the OMB – were repelled in the hope that they would give Republicans coverage to support it.
Elsewhere, it was believed that the Trump years, in which the Senate confirmed Mick Mulvaney and Russ Vought as directors of the OMB after long careers in conservative politics, would make it difficult to oppose a nominee because of the content of their tweets.
“The truth is that she has criticized the left and the right. What the hell? In fact, I know her, I think she’s a good person, ”said Senator Jon Tester (D-Mont.). “I don’t think the fight is over. Not until it is pulled or the vote is negative. “
But these bets were not complemented by an aggressive lobbying effort on behalf of Tanden. A senior Democratic Senate official complained that, even at the beginning of its struggle for confirmation, the White House was lackluster in its defense and deaf to the cold reception it was receiving at Hill. There were doubts about how many champions she had on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
“Who does she have? Ron Klain. This is her constituency, ”said the official.
A source close to the White House, however, countered that Biden personally supported Tanden from the start and thought she was “defending the support of Republicans and Democrats”.
Still, several Democrats said Biden had no strong ties or loyalty to her. Tanden is a product of the Clinton world and is close to John Podesta, with whom she worked at the Center for American Progress and who had defended her placement in the Biden government. Democrats also argue that a hasty Tanden nomination is not a bad political outcome for Biden, as it gives Manchin and Republicans a chance to say he broke up with Biden on one front, while covering them to support his agenda on another. place.
Lawmakers, for their part, did not hesitate to support Tanden’s nomination. On Monday, she had held 35 meetings with senators – although it was unclear with whom. Government officials sought early meetings with moderates like Manchin, but he did not speak to her before the meeting on Monday – after he had already announced opposition to his nomination.
And there was open confusion among the team about whether she had a Sherpa (she did) to help with her appointment and the senators said they were not persuaded by the notion that Tanden was uniquely qualified for the job.
“It looks like she didn’t have much of a chance,” said Senator Shelley Moore Capito (RW.Va). “There’s a part of me that says, why do you put people in positions – and it’s not just Biden who does that – where do you know they have so much baggage that it’s going to be a tough climb?”
Tanden tried to remedy the shortcomings noted in the past few days. Twenty-four hours after the White House said she had those 35 meetings, press secretary Jen Psaki said Tanden had spoken to 44 senators. Tanden asked Senator Susan Collins’s team (R-Maine) for a meeting, although Collins dug more the more she scanned Tanden’s record.
On Tuesday, Collins said the installation of Topher Spiro, a former employee of the Center for American Progress and a critic of Collins on Twitter, at OMB “raises questions about whether she is able to leave behind her extremely partisan approach. ” Collins called Spiro “my troll”.
“Why would you put someone who is a troll against a United States senator in a key position in the OMB?” she asked. She suggested that Jeff Zients – Biden’s reference man in the Covid crisis – would have been a much better choice than Tanden. The government declined to comment on Spiro, who deleted several tweets attacking Collins, posted years ago.
On Wednesday, two committees will vote in Tanden. Senate budget president Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Whom Tanden has targeted in the past, has not yet said he supports it. Nor does Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), Who serves on the Internal Security Committee.
For all of this, the White House continued to stand firm. “We believe there is more than one way,” said a source close to the nomination talks on Tuesday, but he declined to be more specific than saying it involves Republicans.
Meanwhile, Mitch McConnell told his bench that he wants Republicans to remain united in the Tanden vote, according to two sources with knowledge of the minority leader’s comments in the Senate.
Republicans believe Murkowski, who was present but did not respond to McConnell’s call, is the only Republican lawmaker who seriously considers supporting Tanden. But even she seems unlikely – hardly help at home voting to convict Trump in his impeachment trial and then turning around and saving Biden’s most threatened candidate.
Other Republicans who generally believe Biden should see his cabinet confirmed have seen no reason to give the president so much deference. Senator Mitt Romney (R-Utah) met with Tanden and said he heard “a number of colleagues and friends from Neera Tanden who were very supportive”.
But he found her conduct “not consistent with the way I voted in the past,” he said, “and the criticisms I have made of other people in the past for their mean tweets. And it doesn’t match the president’s vision of a more friendly environment. “
Marianne LeVine contributed to this report.