White House Abandons Push for Neera Tanden as Top Budget Official
The White House on Tuesday abandoned its push to install Neera Tanden as the director of President Biden’s budget office after senators in both parties had opposed confirming her, making her nomination the first casualty of the evenly split Senate.
In a statement, Mr. Biden said that he had accepted Ms. Tanden’s request to withdraw herself from consideration for the post but said he planned for her to have a “role” in his administration.
“I have accepted Neera Tanden’s request to withdraw her name from nomination for Director of the Office of Management and Budget. I have the utmost respect for her record of accomplishment, her experience and her counsel, and I look forward to having her serve in a role in my Administration. She will bring valuable perspective and insight to our work,” Mr. Biden said.
Ms. Tanden, who was a senior adviser to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, had drawn bipartisan rebuke for social media posts that criticized lawmakers in both parties and for her work at a liberal think tank. Mr. Biden selected her to direct the Office of Management and Budget before Democrats had won control of the Senate, surprising lawmakers and aides in both parties.
During Ms. Tanden’s confirmation hearings, senators grilled her about her social media posts and her decision to delete more than 1,000 Twitter comments before appearing on Capitol Hill. She apologized for the online venom, but it was clear that some senators were not inclined to disregard it.
Having clashed with Senator Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent who chairs the Budget Committee, and other progressives, Ms. Tanden also faced scrutiny for her comments attacking progressives and for corporate donations she had secured while she was in charge of the Center for American Progress.
In the past 10 days, her nomination had teetered on the brink of collapse as centrist Democrats and Republicans — first Senator Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia, then Senators Mitt Romney of Utah and Susan Collins of Maine, both Republicans — announced they would not back her. That imperiled Ms. Tanden’s margin for confirmation in the 50-50 Senate, leading two committees to abruptly postpone votes last week on advancing her nomination.
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F.B.I. Director Testifies On the Capitol Riot
The F.B.I.’s director, Christopher A. Wray, testified before the Senate on Tuesday about the Capitol riot on Jan. 6. His testimony focused on the emergence of domestic terrorism and the identification of extremist groups involved in the attack.
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“I was appalled, like you, at the violence and destruction that we saw that day. I was appalled that you, our country’s elected leaders, were victimized right here in these very halls, That attack, that siege was criminal behavior, plain and simple, and it’s behavior that we, the F.B.I., view as domestic terrorism. It’s got no place in our democracy, and tolerating it would make a mockery of our nation’s rule of law. Citizens from around the country have sent us more than 270,000 digital media tips. Some have even taken the painful step of turning in their friends or their family members. But with their help, we’ve identified hundreds of suspects and opened hundreds of investigations.” “Based on your investigation, so far, do you have any evidence that the Capitol attack was organized by, quote, ‘fake Trump protesters?’” “We have not seen evidence of that at this stage, certainly. Certainly, while we’re equal opportunity and looking for violent extremism of any ideology, we have not, to date, seen any evidence of anarchist violent extremists or people subscribing to antifa in connection with the 6th. That doesn’t mean, we’re not looking and we’ll continue to look. But at the moment, we have not seen that.” “Oath Keepers, are they a domestic terrorist organization?” “We again, as with probable cause, we have individuals who associate themselves with that group —” “Is antifa a domestic terrorist organization? Same thing, same answer?” “Same answer.” “So why don’t we think about how to gather better information and expose some of these groups — if they were on a list, would it make it easier for you?” “I think the issue of whether or not to designate or have a formal mechanism for designating domestic terror groups the same way we do with, say, al Qaeda or ISIS, I think there’s reasonable debate about whether or not —” “Is the K.K.K. a domestic terrorist group?” “There is no legal designation for that.” “My point is, I don’t know if we should have one or not, but I think it’s time to think about it.”
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