Lisa Murkowski: Republican Senator, critical of Tanden’s previous tweets in the last setback for Biden’s choice of budget director

Lisa Murkowski: Republican Senator, critical of Tanden’s previous tweets in the last setback for Biden’s choice of budget director

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“It seems that in this world we are insensitive to derogatory tweets,” Murkowski told reporters on Capitol Hill. “I don’t think this is a model that we want to define for anyone, be it a nominee, a president or a senator. So, I would like all of us to rub this.”

Asked if a tanden tweet recently resurfaced attacking the senator could affect his vote, Murkowsi said: “I suggested to the White House that my colleagues were being very critical of the statements, and with good reason, and I think some (of the tweets) were clearly exaggerated.”

Murkowski said he was trying to simply look at Tanden’s “competence” in assessing whether he supports his nomination. “Apparently, I will have to research more about what she thinks of me,” she added.

Murkowski’s comments are significant, as Tanden’s nomination has stalled amid tough Republican opposition in the 50-50 Senate and plans by a centrist Democrat, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, to vote against her in plenary. This means that Democratic leaders need to keep all their members in line and get a Republican vote, with Murkowski being the only Republican at risk of defecting. Otherwise, Tanden would be the first candidate to be rejected by the Senate in Biden’s young presidency.
Still, Democrats have their own problems: Senator Kyrsten Sinema, the Arizona Democrat who sits on one of the two main committees scheduled to vote on the nomination on Wednesday. But just two hours before the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee voted, that meeting was abruptly canceled with Democrats and the White House, giving Sinema more time to take a position on the candidate. Sinema declined to comment several times when he was approached at the Capitol on Wednesday.
Republicans take advantage of Biden's domestic political nominees as an indication of Tanden in limbo

The chairs of the two relevant committees, Sens. Gary Peters, a Democrat from Michigan, and Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, both signaled that they can still have votes on their panels once support for their nomination is guaranteed. But no vote is scheduled yet.

“I think it’s no secret that she has no votes at the moment and is working hard to get votes,” said Sanders.

Murkowski, who ran for reelection next year and voted to condemn former President Donald Trump in his impeachment trial, said he heard White House officials about Tanden and noted that he was still undecided. She did not speak to Biden or Tanden, but says the White House has offered to make Tanden available.

Asked what the White House told her about why Tanden should be confirmed, Murkowski said she was told, “The president has nominated her.”

Murkowski, who is not part of the two committees considering the nomination, admitted that she had not yet fully examined the nominee – so much so that she was unaware of a 2017 tweet that emerged recently that attacked the Alaskan Republican for supporting the GOP tax law. “You know, we know, and everyone knows that this is all rubbish. Just stop, ”wrote Tanden at the time.

Murkowski did not know about this tweet and stopped to read it on a reporter’s phone.

“It shows how much homework I still have to do about her, if I didn’t even know she tweeted about me,” Murkowski replied.

Tanden expressed regret for his previous tweets, while excluding many of them, and promised to work with Republicans on a bipartisan basis.

And Democrats have sharply criticized Republicans – who mostly ignored Trump’s inflammatory and inflammatory tweets for the past four years – but are now horrified by Tanden’s previous comments.

Senate minority leader John Thune, a Republican from South Dakota, argued that he “personally is not concerned with tweets”.

“I’m not concerned with tweets, but I think her background is quite extensive from being very partisan and there was a concern about whether it would be transferred to work or not, which is important and where she will have to work with people on the other side,” he said.

Still, Thune and other Republicans supported ideologically oriented conservatives in the same Trump era.

The White House – which started looking for alternative candidates in particular – publicly reiterated its support for Tanden’s nomination after the polls were postponed, with press secretary Jen Psaki saying that Tanden “is a leading policy expert who brings essential qualifications to the table in this moment of unprecedented crisis. “

Late Wednesday afternoon, Psaki said the White House was “fighting” on Tanden’s behalf and refused to characterize the postponement as a “setback”.

Lauren Fox, Betsy Klein and Maegan Vazquez of CNN contributed to this report.

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