Minutes after her confirmation hearing, President Biden’s nominee for director of the White House Office of Administration and Budget, Neera Tanden, had to address concerns about hostile tweets she posted against several Republican lawmakers.
The first Republican on the Senate Homeland Security Committee to question Tanden, Senator Rob Portman, R-Ohio, immediately mentioned Tanden’s posts, many of which he deleted last year.
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“I believe that the tone, the content and the aggressive partisanship of some of his public statements contributed to the worrying trend of more incivility and division in our public life and, in your case, I am concerned that your personal attacks on specific senators will make it more difficult for you to work with them, “said Portman, noting that the director of the OMB has to work with members of both parties.
Portman gave examples of “some of the thousands of negative public statements” that Tanden made. This included her calling Senator Susan Collins, R-Maine, “the worst” and Senator Tom Cotton, R-Ark., A “fraud”, saying “vampires have more heart than Ted Cruz” and referring to if they- Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., like “Moscow Mitch” and “Voldemort”, referring to the Harry Potter villain.
Portman said that even after Tanden deleted tweets, there were still nine pages of posts about Cruz that were still up.
Neera Tanden testifies before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs about his nomination to become the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), during a hearing on Tuesday, February 9, 2021, at the Capitol, in Washington. (Leigh Vogel / Pool via AP)
((Leigh Vogel / Pool via AP))
“I wonder, specifically, how do you plan to repair fences and build relationships with members of Congress that you attacked through your public statements?” Asked Portman.
“I recognize the concern,” replied Tanden. “I deeply regret and apologize for my language – part of my previous language. I recognize that this function is bipartisan and I know that I need to win the confidence of senators across the board. I will work very aggressively to address this concern.”
Tanden said he hopes to work “in a bipartisan and non-partisan way”, although he acknowledges that “it is up to me to prove this to this committee and the members”.
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Tanden later offered a direct apology for his comments.
“For those concerned with my rhetoric and my language, you know, I’m sorry and I’m sorry for any damage they’ve done,” she said.
Portman referred to a report that Tanden had deleted thousands of tweets after the November election and asked if she was doing so because she knew she could be a candidate for a job in the administration.
“I deleted tweets because I regretted the tone and deleted it over many months,” said Tanden. She did not say that she removed the positions with a job in mind.
Senator Ron Johnson, R-Wis., Asked Tanden if she had any help from Biden’s transition team when she deleted tweets. She insisted that no one advised her on this.
Tanden has not only had problems with Republicans in the past. She also had a tumultuous history with Senator Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.
During the 2019 presidential primary race, Sanders wrote an inflamed letter to the Center for American Progress, led by Tanden, accusing her of “slandering my team and supporters and belittling progressive ideas”.
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The Vermont senator, who calls himself a democratic socialist, also criticized a video from ThinkProgress, a project by the Center for American Progress Action Fund, which accused him of changing his rhetoric about wealthy Americans after he became a millionaire in 2016.
Sanders now chairs the Senate Budget Committee, which will host Tanden for a confirmation hearing on Wednesday.
Fox News Megan Henney and Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.