Neera Tanden’s Nomination As OMB Director Imperiled By ‘Mean Tweets’

In comically tone-deaf fashion, GOP senators have voiced opposition to Neera Tanden as lead of the Office of Management and Budget because of a history of “mean tweets” directed at Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky), Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont).

Tanden’s nomination needs at least one GOP senator to vote in favor since Sen. Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia) said that he would not vote to nominate Tandem, citing her history of tweets.

Manchin said in a statement, “I have carefully reviewed Neera Tanden’s public statements and tweets that were personally directed towards my colleagues on both sides of the aisle from Senator Sanders to Senator McConnell and others. I believe her overtly partisan statements will have a toxic and detrimental impact on the important working relationship between members of Congress and the next director of the Office of Management and Budget. For this reason, I cannot support her nomination.”

Tanden deleted a backlog of thousands of tweets weeks before her announced nomination. Tweets uncovered quote Tandem saying, “Can people on here please focus their ire on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the GOP senators who are Up This Cycle who enable him: Cory Gardner, Collins, Ernst, Cornyn, Perdue, Tillis And many more,” in 2019. Tanden more specifically criticized Collins for her treatment of Dr. Christine Ford during Brett Kavanaugh‘s Supreme Court hearing saying, “Susan Collins’ terrible treatment of Dr. Ford should haunt Collins the rest of her days.”

During day one of her confirmation hearing, Sanders commented on Tanden’s history saying, “There were vicious attacks against progressives, people who I have worked with — me personally.”

Tanden was apologetic during her confirmation hearing saying, “my language and my expressions on social media caused hurt to people, and I feel badly about that. And I really regret it and I recognize that it’s really important for me to demonstrate that I can work with others. I would say social media does lead to too many personal comments and my approach will be radically different.”

Considering the de-facto leader of the GOP right now is former-tweeter-in-chief Donald Trump, several analysts have been quick to call out the GOP hypocrisy of denying Tanden confirmation due to her social media history.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki wrote a statement on Twitter voicing support for Tanden.

The White House continues to stand by their nomination of Tanden and has not voiced interest in replacing her as of Tuesday afternoon, but Washington was full of gossip about who might be next in line to replace her.

Article by Brandon Mumei