Neera Tanden, appointed by President Joe Biden as Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), attends an audience with the Senate Budget Committee at the Capitol in Washington, February 10, 2021.
Anna Moneymaker | Pool | Reuters
President Joe Biden said on Tuesday that he is withdrawing the appointment of Neera Tanden as head of budget at her request, a move that came after signs that she would not get confirmation from the Senate because of previous critical Twitter posts about lawmakers. .
Biden also said that he hoped that Tanden, whom he had appointed to be director of the Office of Administration and Budget, would get another “role in my administration”. But the president did not identify what the job would be.
Tanden’s withdrawal is the first case of a Biden Cabinet nominee who failed to get Senate approval.
In a letter to Biden, Tanden wrote, “I appreciate how hard you and your team at the White House worked to earn my confirmation.”
“Unfortunately, it now seems clear that there is no way forward for confirmation, and I do not want my continued consideration of my appointment to be a distraction from his other priorities,” wrote Tanden, who is president of the left center think tank for progress. American.
Tanden’s nomination was in doubt after three senators – Joe Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia, and Mitt Romney, R-Utah and Maine Republican Susan Collins – said they would vote against her because of her track record of criticizing lawmakers in both sides of the political corridor.
This criticism was filed in more than 1,000 tweets that Tanden allegedly deleted before the confirmation process started.
Democrats hold majority control in the Senate by a minimal margin. Two caucus independents with 48 Democratic senators, giving them the same number of votes as the 50 caucus republican senators.
Vice President Kamala Harris, a Democrat, holds the Senate tiebreak vote, giving her party approval of nominations and legislation if the caucus remains unified.
Manchin’s refusal to support Tanden, along with the difficulty in getting a Republican to support her, made Tanden’s path to confirmation very narrow.
During his confirmation hearing, Tanden was asked about his previous tweets, which included comparing Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., To Harry Potter villain Voldemort, and writing that “vampires have more heart” than than Senator Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican.
Senator Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent, also pointed out Tanden’s “wicked attacks” against him and other progressives in the past, especially when Sanders ran against former Senator and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for the 2016 Democratic nomination. Tanden had been an advisor to the Clinton campaign.
At his confirmation hearings, Tanden said, “I deeply regret and apologize for my language, and part of my previous language.”
Biden, in a statement released by the White House, said of Tanden: “I have the utmost respect for your record of achievements, your experience and your advice, and I look forward to having you in a role in my administration.”
“It will bring a valuable perspective and vision to our work,” said the president.