Neera Tanden, President Joe Biden’s pick to lead the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), apologized for her online behavior that disparaged Republican lawmakers during a Tuesday Senate hearing, Reuters reported.
“I recognize the concern. I deeply regret and apologize for my language, and some of my past language,” Tanden said during a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing, according to Reuters.
Biden nominated Tanden while she was president of the Center for American Progress, a progressive think tank. Upon her nomination, Tanden began scrubbing her Twitter account of Tweets that targeted Republicans, as her position will require Senate confirmation, according to the Washington Times. In a two-week period, Tanden deleted over 1,000 Tweets, according to web archives kept by Wayback Machine, reported on by The Washington Times. Purged from Tanden’s online footprint were statements that seemed to go after Republican Maine Sen. Susan Collins, as replies to the deleted tweet suggest.
.@neeratanden appears to have deleted her tweets about Susan Collins, whose vote she’ll likely need for confirmation.
h/t @varadmehta pic.twitter.com/atwonFCaMb— KC Johnson (@kcjohnson9) November 30, 2020
In another online tirade directed at Collins, Tanden called the Maine Senator “Pathetic” for voting for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation.
Pathetic. https://t.co/uukVMyonIX
— Neera Tanden (@neeratanden) August 22, 2018
Tanden has also referred to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell as “Moscow Mitch,” according to Reuters. An unnamed Biden administration senior official previously told Politico Feb. 4 that “If anyone here called Sen. McConnell anything other than Sen. McConnell, the president would have that person fired,” responding to a question about new nicknames given to Washington politicians. (RELATED: If Joe Biden Really Wants Unity, He Has A Funny Way Of Showing It)
Other social media posts targeted the GOP as a whole, calling the party “evil” and “morally and ideologically bankrupt.”
I think I’ll bet the under on @neeratanden getting the votes to confirm her if any of those will need to come from the party whose “capacity for evil knows no bounds” by her telling (among other things). pic.twitter.com/X1uTLJ6dkT
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) November 30, 2020
Democratic Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar called Tanden “smart, organized and tenacious,” and added “Those are good qualities for this job,” during the hearing, Reuters reported.
Tanden has shown bad judgment in the past. She said that @realDonaldTrump is “part of [a] conspiracy against [the] US” & has a track record of disparaging Rep Senators. There’s a saying that “personnel is policy,” which is why Biden’s nomination of Tanden is deeply concerning.
— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) December 1, 2020
Republican Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton and Republican North Dakota Sen. Kevin Cramer have both suggested that Tanden faces an uphill battle for confirmation. Tanden has also been criticized by other prominent Republicans like former Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley.