Tanden, at confirmation hearing, says she regrets past tweets
When then-President-elect Joe Biden unveiled his economic team in November, one nominee received stiff resistance from Senate Republicans: Neera Tanden, his choice to become director of the White House’s Office of Management and Budget.
Tanden was known as a frequent political commentator on cable television and had been criticized for her past tweets blasting Republican lawmakers, as well as perpetuating a conspiracy that Russians hacked voter rolls in 2016 to take votes away from Hillary Clinton in favor of Donald Trump -- though she denied that was the intent of her tweet at the time. Republicans also point out that she signaled support to cut Social Security benefits following the 2010 midterm elections when the Tea Party swept Republicans into the House majority. She served most recently as the head of the liberal think tank Center for American Progress.
Tanden’s confirmation hearing took place before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Tuesday morning, and in her opening statement, she said she regretted her past tweets.
“I also know that the role of OMB director is different from some of my past positions,” Tanden said. “Over the last few years, it’s been part of my role to be an impassioned advocate. I know there have been some concerns about some of my past language and social media, and I regret that language and take responsibility for it. I understand that the role of OMB director calls for bipartisan action as well as nonpartisan adherence to facts and evidence.”
Sen. Rob Portman, of Ohio, the top Republican member of the committee, noted that “typically the OMB director is not a partisan” because the director needs to have relationships with lawmakers from both parties. He read specific things he said Tanden had tweeted about Sens. Susan Collins, Tom Cotton, Ted Cruz and Mitch McConnell.
“I believe that the tone, the content and the aggressive partisanship of some of your public statements, have added to the troubling trend of more incivility and division in our public life, and in your case, I’m concerned that your personal attacks about specific senators will make it more difficult to work with them,” Portman said.
Tanden confirmed she had deleted tweets, saying she “regretted the tone.”
If confirmed, Tanden, 50, would be the first woman of color and first South Asian American to lead the OMB.
The OMB director, while not a marquee Cabinet post in the presidential line of succession, is a critical economic adviser who has sometimes doubled as the president’s fiscal disciplinarian, serving as a check within the executive branch on any far-fetched spending plans fancied by other Cabinet members.
-ABC News Ben Gittleson and John Parkinson
