WASHINGTON – A latent rift within the Democratic Party spread to the public eye on Wednesday when Senator Bernie Sanders, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, confronted Neera Tanden, nominated by President Biden to head the Office of Management and Budget, for cause of millions of dollars donations your think tank has received and its history of leveling personal attacks on social networks.
It was the second day of tough questions for Tanden, the president of the liberal study center Center for American Progress, and it underscored the persistent tension between the Democratic Party’s progressive and moderate wings. She served in the Clinton and Obama governments and was one of Hillary Clinton’s top advisers during the 2016 presidential campaign. The appointment of Ms. Tanden, a polarizing political operative, drew criticism for undermining Biden’s message of unity.
The direct confrontation between Tanden and Sanders, independent of Vermont, who took over the presidency of the budget panel this year, was one of the few moments of potential drama in the process of confirming Biden’s office. Mr. Sanders wasted no time breaking the ice.
“Now, Ms. Tanden, at a time when large and wealthy corporations have an extraordinary influence on the economic and political life of this country, I must tell you that I am concerned about the corporate donations that the Center for American Progress has received under your leadership ”Said Sanders in his opening statement. “Before voting to confirm your nomination, it is important for this committee to know that these donations will not influence your decision making at OMB”
He cited a report that concluded that the center has received at least $ 38 million from corporate America since 2014. Ms. Tanden insisted that the donations had nothing to do with her role as budget director and noted that she had long been calling for policies that restrict the influence of Wall Street.
“It will have zero impact on my decision making,” she said.
Sanders then went on to Tanden’s criticism of him and his progressive allies.
“There were violent attacks against progressives, people I worked with, me personally,” he said. “Can you reflect on some of your decisions and some of the personal statements you have made in recent years?”
Ms. Tanden and Mr. Sanders have clashed since the 2016 election, with Mr. Sanders accusing her in 2019 of “slandering my team and supporters and belittling progressive ideas”. ThinkProgress, an independent publishing arm of the Tanden think tank, criticized Sanders for the size of his income from writing a book.
Ms. Tanden apologized for hurting someone’s feelings and promised to take a radically different approach to communicating if she was confirmed as the budget director.
On Tuesday, during his first confirmation hearing, before the Senate’s internal security panel, Tanden received similar criticisms – but from Republicans. They spent the first hour questioning her about her Twitter posts and asking why she deleted more than 1,000 tweets right after the November election.
Senator Rob Portman, Republican of Ohio, read posts in which he called Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the minority leader, “Moscow Mitch” and said “vampires have more heart than Ted Cruz”, a Republican senator from Texas.
Mrs. Tanden apologized to the committee and said that she deleted some of her tweets because she regretted her tone.
At the hearing on Wednesday, Republicans reveled in the opportunity to create a division between Tanden and Sanders. Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, the top Republican on the Budget Committee, said he was not too concerned about the donations Tanden oversaw, but he raised his attacks on Republicans and Democrats.
“His contempt was not limited to Republicans,” said Graham. “This is not the unifying choice I was looking for in this position.”
He addressed the tensions between Tanden and Sanders, dusting off previous criticisms she made of the Vermont senator, including comments suggesting that Russia tried to help Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign.
Senator John Kennedy, a Republican from Louisiana, repeatedly accompanied and pressured Tanden to say whether she really meant the things she tweeted about lawmakers.
“You called Senator Sanders everything but an ignorant bitch,” said Kennedy.
Mrs. Tanden denied the charge and, after repeatedly contesting whether her caustic comments were sincere, said, “I must have been sincere, but I really regret them.”
On politics, she boldly answered questions about the country’s deficits, taxes and social safety net programs. She clung to Biden’s political views and promised to work with Republicans and Democrats transparently.
With Democrats in control of the Senate, Ms. Tanden must be confirmed.
A Sanders spokesman did not immediately answer a question about whether he would support the nomination.