Key committee votes postponed in troubling sign for Tanden nomination
Senators need extra time to think about the nomination, an official on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee who’s aware of the matter tells CNN. A senior aide on the opposite panel, the Senate Budget Committee, advised CNN its listening to additionally was postponed and that Chairman Sen. Bernie Sanders, an impartial who caucuses with Democrats and who has clashed with Tanden in the previous, personally knowledgeable Tanden on the telephone Tuesday night time concerning the committee’s plans to postpone the markup.
Tanden faces resistance from Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, a centrist from West Virginia, and a big selection of Republicans who’ve stated they won’t again her due to her previous partisan criticisms aimed toward lawmakers in sharp assaults at odds with Biden’s pledges of civility and unity.
But the political actuality is that the votes to push her via an evenly divided Senate don’t seem to exist. Tanden stands an opportunity if she wins the assist of average Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, however it’s removed from clear that may occur.
If the nomination stalls out, it could be the primary defeat of a high-profile Biden decide topic to Senate approval and would underscore the slim margin of error Democrats should take care of in a Senate with a 50-50 partisan cut up.
Sinema sits on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and has thus far refused to say how she’s going to vote. One supply advised CNN the committee is particularly involved with Sinema’s standing and didn’t wish to threat taking the vote on Tanden with out figuring out how she deliberate to vote. CNN has reached out to her workplace for remark.
Asked if he believes all Democrats on his panel will assist the nominee, Sen. Gary Peters, the Michigan Democrat who chairs the Homeland Security committee, advised CNN on Tuesday, “I haven’t talked to all of them but I believe we will.”
Murkowski has indicated she will not decide till after the committee vote. “I’ve got time,” she stated when requested when she would make her place recognized.
Sanders wouldn’t say Tuesday if he deliberate to assist Tanden for the place. The Vermont senator was not consulted earlier than Tanden was nominated to steer OMB and heard of her decide via information media experiences, a supply near the method advised CNN Wednesday.
The White House remained supportive of Tanden Wednesday morning, with press secretary Jen Psaki telling CNN after the vote was postponed that Tanden “is a leading policy expert who brings critical qualifications to the table during this time of unprecedented crisis.”
Tanden apologized and expressed remorse over her previous tweets throughout Senate affirmation hearings earlier this month.
In an announcement asserting his opposition to the nomination, Manchin stated that Tanden’s feedback on Twitter about Sanders and Republican colleagues, together with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, had led him to doubt she was the best match.
“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,” Manchin stated in an announcement. “For this reason, I cannot support her nomination.”
Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, who had been considered as a possible swing vote, equally expressed opposition over Tanden’s rhetoric.
In an announcement, Collins cited Tanden’s “past actions” and stated the OMB nominee doesn’t have the “experience nor the temperament” to steer the workplace.
“Congress has to be able to trust the OMB director to make countless decisions in an impartial manner, carrying out the letter of the law and congressional intent,” Collins stated. “Neera Tanden has neither the experience nor the temperament to lead this critical agency. Her past actions have demonstrated exactly the kind of animosity that President Biden has pledged to transcend.”
Collins additionally stated that Tanden’s deletion of tweets earlier than her affirmation was introduced “raises concerns about her commitment to transparency.”
GOP Sen. John Cornyn of Texas on Tuesday referred to as on Biden to withdraw the nomination given the stiff resistance she faces.
“My friendly advice to President Biden is to withdraw Neera Tanden’s nomination and select someone who at the very least has not … openly bashed people on both sides of the aisle that she happens to disagree with,” he stated.
CNN’s Manu Raju, Ryan Nobles, Jake Tapper, Lauren Fox and Chandelis Duster contributed to this report.
