White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Wednesday insisted that the Biden administration remains committed to “fighting” for the nomination of Neera Tanden to lead the OMB, following the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee’s postponement of its confirmation hearing for Tanden.
“We’re fighting for her nomination and she and our team remain in close contact, close touch with senators and key constituency groups,” Psaki said. “She’s an expert whose qualifications are critical during this time of an unprecendented crisis.”
Tanden has struggled to gain the votes needed to secure her confirmation following Sen. Joe Manchin’s (D-WV) announcement last week that he will oppose Biden’s nominee to lead the OMB. Much of the criticism against Tanden is centered on her mean tweets in the past that targeted some of the lawmakers now deciding her fate in a 50-50 Senate, such as referring to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) as “Voldemort.” Ironically, many of the same Republicans who take issue with Tanden’s name-calling tweets have readily excused or acted like they didn’t see derogatory tweets from former President Trump or other members of their own party.
Psaki reiterated her comments issued at a briefing the day before, saying that Tanden has been actively reaching out to senators on both sides of the aisle.
“She’s very engaged in doing outreach to senators, to members on the Hill, answering any questions they have and offering to do that,” Psaki said. “And we’re doing the same.”
Asked whether the Senate committee’s delay of Tanden’s confirmation hearing is viewed as a setback, Psaki brushed the framing aside.
“I think we are committed to continuing to fight for all of our nominees, continuing to do the outreach needed to answer questions, to address concerns anyone has, to reiterate the qualifications of all of the nominees that the President has put forward, and to do due diligence in fighting for the team he’s nominated,” Psaki said.
Pressed on whether Tanden has offered to withdraw, Psaki said: “that’s not the stage we’re in.
“The stage we’re in is working to continue to fight for her nomination,” Psaki said.
Watch Psaki’s remarks below:
This is silly. Manchin just wants to show his West Virginia constituents (none of whom trust Washington liberals) that he’s not just a Biden lackey but, rather, a true independent. He’s opposing this nomination solely for theatrical purposes and nothing else. The problem is that he has no real motivation to back down and, if the Biden administration wants to deprive Manchin of his “theater,” it will probably cost them far more than they would gain from just having her quietly slip away.
Let it go. There are lots of people who can do the job she’s been appointed for. This isn’t a hill worth dying on.
Clock’s ticking. I give it 24 more hours before Tanden withdraws her candidacy.
While I know this position is not popular here, It’s time to cut bait
If you don’t have the votes now, you are never going to have them. Calling people like Susan Collins ‘criminally ignorant’ may be accurate, but not how you get Collins vote.
If you need to delete several tweets before you appear for confirmation hearings, it’s not going go well.
It was a mistake nominating Tanden and she needs to put the country and party first and withdraw.
Enough already. We need a cabinet in place now.
Albeit, this is the House, there’s no question of the organized bigotry of the GOP towards just about anyone who doesn’t look and act like them and believe the same bullshit they do.
Completely disgusting gang of liars, miscreants, bigots and shitadders.
I think the only way Tanden gets the OMB job is if a few Senators have states that significantly benefit from well-targeted ear marks as part of an overall agreement. I don’t know how they could pull this off. Otherwise she’s going bye-bye. It’s too bad, too, because the stuff she tweeted was all true, unlike the crap that Satan’s Avatar and his lackeys spewed.
Moscow Mitch, fer shur.