WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden’s choice to lead the Office of Management and Budget apologized on Tuesday for spending years attacking major Republicans on social media while trying to convince senators that he would leave party politics behind if confirmed.
Neera Tanden also admitted to having spent “many months” removing previous Twitter posts, saying, “I deleted tweets because I regretted it.” But she declined to say that she did this to help with her nomination.
“I know there have been some concerns about some of my previous words on social media, and I regret that language and I take responsibility for it,” Tanden, former Hillary Clinton adviser and president of the Center for American Progress, told a committee of the Senate.
Later, she added: “I am deeply sorry and apologize for my language.”
Tanden would be the first black woman to lead the OMB. His appointment requires the approval of the Senate, which acted very quickly to approve many of Biden’s options for powerful positions. That’s despite being split 50-50 between Democrats and Republicans and this week struggling with former President Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial.
Democrats hold the majority thanks to Vice President Kamala Harris’ tiebreaker vote. None in the party has yet opposed Tanden, which means it is likely to pass. But Republicans signaled that the process could spark an invisible political battle with other Biden nominees, given her record of criticism of Republican lawmakers she now had to work with.
Ohio Republican Senator Rob Portman noted that while he came back and tried to “cover what you said” by excluding tweets, severe and abundant “criticism” and “personal attacks on specific senators” persisted. He said this included Tanden calling Republican Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas “a fraud” and tweeting that “vampires have more heart” than Ted Cruz, R-Texas.
Oklahoma Republican Senator James Lankford said Tanden has tweeted more in the past four years than even Trump.
“Something that this committee frequently asks nominees is, ‘Will you commit to working in the hall?’” Said Lankford. “And that is something that we have to ask you a little more directly than the others, because it is very clear that it was not your position in the past.”
Tanden said he acknowledges “that this function is bipartisan and I know that I have to win the confidence of senators across the board”.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Tuesday that Biden remains confident that Tanden will be confirmed, but that no one in the government has instructed her to apologize to facilitate the process.
“We certainly didn’t ask her to make any specific comments on her testimony,” said Psaki.
With the coronavirus pandemic wreaking havoc on the economy, Tanden promised that he would use the position of head of the budget to “vigorously reinforce my iron belief that our government should serve all Americans, regardless of the party, in every corner of the country. “
Still, the Senate’s discussion of Tanden’s nomination is likely to focus more on his previous tweets than on his budget priorities. Cotton said they were “full of hate”. Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn previously suggested that she would face “a certainly problematic path” for the nomination.
Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley offered another potential line of Republican criticism on Tuesday, noting that the Center for American Progress raised large donations from Wall Street companies and groups associated with major technology companies while Tanden headed him.
“How can you assure us that you will work to ensure that these Silicon Valley and Wall Street companies do not have an undoing influence,” asked Hawley, “in formulating government policies and controlling our economy?”
Tanden replied that she called for higher taxes on technology companies and more regulation on Wall Street and major corporate interests because “we must move to rebalance power in our economy”.