Neera Tanden will take office on May 26 as the new head of the Domestic Policy Council. President Joe Biden announced his selection earlier this month to replace Susan Rice. In addition to working in the current administration, Tanden is well known in DC for her previous nomination to head the Office of Management and Budget. A viral exchange with Senator John Kennedy made her famous during that process.
In November 2020, the still president-elect publicly stated his choice of Tanden to lead the office in preparing the president's budget. Just hours later, Tanden deleted around 1,000 tweets and changed her description from "progressive" to "liberal." What was in those tweets? They were filled with insults and attacks against many legislators, including Ted Cruz, Mitch McConnell, Susan Collins and Bernie Sanders, for whom she had little sympathy after working for Hillary Clinton.
"I don't know anyone personally in Bernie's world who is happy about this choice. We're talking about a woman who's notorious for visibly assaulting Bernie Sanders' campaign manager," Sanders' former national press secretary, Briahna Joy Gray, said at the time.
With her reputation preceding her, Tanden arrived at the Senate for her confirmation process, where she was repeatedly asked about her tweets. The most viral exchange was with Sen. John Kennedy. The Louisiana Republican tends to accumulate a lot of views on social networks due to his logic and humor-infused dialogues with presidential nominees.
After beginning the exchange by talking about nuclear waste, the senator addressed Tanden's social media history. "I have to tell you, I'm very disturbed about your personal comments about people. And it's not just one or two, I think you deleted about a thousand tweets. It wasn't just about Republicans. And I don't mind disagreements on policy, I think that's great, I love the dialectic, but the comments were personal. I mean, you called Senator Sanders everything but 'an ignorant slut,'" Kennedy said.
Sen. John Kennedy tells Neera Tanden on her old tweets:
"You called Senator Sanders everything but an ignorant slut." pic.twitter.com/eYfPlSj2fm
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) February 10, 2021
The senator referenced a famous line from Saturday Night Live during the 1970s and, for clarity's sake, asked that "I want the record to reflect that I did not call Senator Sanders an ignorant slut.'" "I don't know how I could take that, Senator Kennedy," replied his Vermont colleague.
Despite Tanden's repeated apologies, the White House decided to drop her nomination on March 2, 2021. Joe Manchin's negative vote would complicate the math, so Biden appointed her as a senior advisor and White House Staff Secretary. Precisely, her rhetoric on social networks motivated the senator to oppose the then-nominee.
As for her new role, she will take over on May 26 as head of the Domestic Policy Council, where she can significantly influence the president's political agenda.
