Joe Manchin voted for controversial nominees for Trump, but is undecided in Biden’s

Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) – the lawmaker who voted for more Trump nominees than any other Democrat – can sink at least one of Biden’s.

So far, Manchin has voiced his opposition to Neera Tanden, a nominee for the role of director in the Office of Administration and Budget, arguing that his previous social media posts targeting both Republicans and progressive Democrats were very polarizing.

“I believe that his openly partisan statements will have a toxic and damaging impact on the important working relationship between members of Congress and the next director of the Office of Management and Budget,” said Manchin in a statement, adding later that the decision was not ” staff.”

Manchin’s opposition is important because Biden’s nominees may end up needing all the Democratic votes in the Senate, where the party has a minimum majority of 50 people, to be confirmed. Her decision probably means that Tanden will not survive, especially as a growing list of moderate Republicans who could have saved her nomination also said they would not support her.

Manchin is also undecided about the appointment of Rep. Deb Haaland (D-NM) as Secretary of the Interior, and the appointment of former California Attorney General Xavier Becerra as Secretary of Health and Human Services. Both have been the main Republican targets, due to their more progressive views on policies, including the New Deal Green and Medicare-for-All, respectively.

Signaling that he can finally support Haaland, Manchin launched a demonstration on Tuesday afternoon, highlighting how she pledged to work on West Virginia’s priorities with him and preserve the country’s broader energy independence.

At this point, it is not yet clear how Manchin will vote for any of the candidates. His initial protection, however, has already spawned a Democratic setback and raised questions about why he gave less support to several nominees who are also people of color. Tanden would be the first Native American person to become director of the OMB if she was confirmed, Haaland would be the first Indian American interior secretary and Becerra would be the first Latin secretary of the HHS. Manchin’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Regardless of the reasons behind his concerns, the optics of the situation have earned him rebukes from some prominent progressives.

Former President Donald Trump’s first attorney general “Jeff Sessions was so openly racist that not even Reagan could name him. Manchin voted to confirm it, ”deputy Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wrote in a tweet about the senator’s concerns about Haaland. “Still, the first native woman to be a cabinet secretary is where Manchin is uncomfortable?”

Manchin’s hesitation to embrace all of Biden’s nominees fits a general pattern that the senator has been following for some time: a moderate Democrat who represents a state that voted for Trump by almost 40 points in recent elections, Manchin has long established himself as someone willing to challenge your party – often citing the importance of bipartisanship, as he did when talking about Tanden’s nomination. “In a time of serious crisis, it is more important than ever that we design a new bipartisan course that will help address the many serious challenges that our nation faces,” said Manchin recently.

Now, however, progressives like Ocasio-Cortez are among those who ask why Manchin was willing to support several troubled Trump nominees – many of whom were focused on party priorities – while remaining opposed or uncertain about Biden’s choices. It is a dynamic that leads people to wonder if the senator’s litmus test applies differently depending on the candidate.

Joe Manchin was the only Democrat who supported several Trump nominees

During the last administration, Manchin also stood out with regard to the nominees: he was the only Democrat to support several of Trump’s choices, a distinction that is touted on his Senate website.

“On nine occasions, Senator Manchin was the only Democrat to vote to confirm Trump’s nominees, including two cabinet secretaries, three district court judges and several other nominees,” says a statement.

Officials he supported include former attorney general Jeff Sessions, who defended the zero-tolerance policy that led to the separation of parents from children on the southern border; Supreme Court Judge Brett Kavanaugh, who faced an allegation of sexual assault during his confirmation process; and former US ambassador to Germany Ric Grenell, who found warmth from his own tweets criticizing women.

Against this background, it has been somewhat shocking for many Democrats to see Manchin oppose or express indecision over Biden’s nominees who won the Republican Party’s return for their social media postings or were denounced by Republicans for their progressive views on health and energy policy, respectively.

There is an obvious political reason for Manchin to take such positions: Trump’s strong inclination in his home state, whose other senator is Shelley Moore Capito, a Republican who supported Trump. But it is not clear how much constituents can take such votes into account when weighing their potential reelection in four years or in a theoretical race for governor in the future.

There are other possible reasons for this approach as well: although Manchin’s concerns about Tanden focus heavily on his party statements, he told E&E News that he still has doubts about Haaland’s agenda and his support for a ban on fracturing on public land. And Manchin, a pro-life Democrat, may also have questions similar to what Republicans have expressed about Becerra’s previous support for abortion rights.

Several nominees facing opposition from the Republican Party are now people of color

As Politico’s Lauren Barron-Lopez and Christopher Cadelago reported, something that also causes consternation among Democrats – who have made promoting diversity a priority – is that the Biden nominees who have gotten the most resistance (or who face uncertainty about confirmation successful) are all colored people, mainly women. This raised questions about whether Republicans and Manchin are double standards when it comes to how they are evaluating Biden’s nominees.

“Is there a pattern here ???” Rep. Grace Meng (D-NY), vice president of Congressional Pacific American Caucus recently posted in a tweet, responding to comments that Manchin allegedly expressed at Haaland, in which he noted that he still had “doubts” about his candidacy.

The question of whether the nominees of color are receiving more scrutiny and being more severely penalized for their actions than white men is something that several Democratic lawmakers and defenders highlighted.

As Vox’s Ella Nilsen reported, the irony in lawmakers using Tanden’s tweets as a reason to oppose his nomination is remarkable, as Republicans have long supported Trump or remained silent despite his incendiary presence on the media platform Social. Grenell’s previous confirmation process also serves as another point of comparison for a nominee who had problems because of controversial tweets, but still received strong party support in the process.

“When a white man manages to get away with vile behavior, but a woman of color cannot express deep frustration … let’s call it what it is,” Congresswoman Veronica Escobar (D-TX) wrote in a tweet about Tanden. “Sexism. And with some, it’s racism too.”

The final verdict on the nominations of Tanden, Haaland and Becerra is not yet certain, as they, respectively, go through the confirmation process. But experts in racial justice and gender equality emphasize that black women were instrumental in the Democratic presidential and Senate victories and should hold prominent positions in the government.

“Black women mobilized like never before in the last elections and handed over the White House, the Senate and the polling stations across the country,” groups like Ela, the People and Democracy for America wrote in a letter. “To be clear: we don’t hold the election just to be marginalized again.”