Joe Biden is expected to tap Center for American Progress (CAP) President Neera Tanden to serve as director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday. Tanden is a divisive choice for Joe Biden, a candidate who has called for unity and national healing in recent days.
Tanden's Senate confirmation process would likely be a bumpy road given her attacks on prominent Democrats like Bernie Sanders, her controversial handling of sexual harassment allegations at CAP and her long history of attacking Republicans.
Under Tanden's leadership, CAP, a leading liberal think tank, leaunched personal attacks against Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT). If Biden moves forward on Tanden's nomination, the nomination would pass through the Senate Budget Committee where Sanders is currently the ranking member.
ThinkProgress, a progressive news website launched under CAP, released an attack ad on Bernie Sanders, noting the Senator had become less vocal in his opposition to millionaires and billionaires after joining the ranks of America's wealthy.
One of the best attacks on Bernie in the last few years came from @thinkprogress pointing out he had stopped criticizing millionaires after he became one.
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) February 9, 2020
“Turns out railing against “millionaires and billionaires” can be quite the lucrative enterprise.”pic.twitter.com/NBQwjcg72J
Responding to the attacks, Sanders called out Tanden for her hypocrisy by seeking unity while simultaneously orchestrating attacks against Sanders and other Democrats.
"Center for American Progress Leader Nera Tanden repeatedly calls for unity while simultaneously maligning my staff and supporters and belittling progressive ideas," Sanders complained in Apr. 2019. "... I and other Democratic candidates are running campaigns based on principles and ideas and not engaging in mudslinging or personal attacks on each other."
In 2018, BuzzFeed News reported that CAP staff was shocked when Tanden revealed the identity of a person who had made anonymous allegations of sexual harassment and retaliation within the organization. A spokesperson said the revelation was unintentional, but CAP staff present at the meeting said it was just another example of Tanden's inability to appropriately handle sexual harassment cases.
"Neera lost the organization today," one CAP employee present at the meeting told BuzzFeed News. "There was so much angst in that room. She outed the victim, and the subtext of every question was a lack of confidence in her leadership and ability to create trust within the organization."
And Tanden's long history of attacking Republicans won't make her confirmation battle even easier. Tanden has a large number of tweets lambasting Republicans, tweets that will probably be deleted ahead of any confirmation hearing.
Over the summer, Tanden said it was fortunate that the coronavirus surged in blue states first because, according to the partisan liberal, blue states "had the thinking to take action to stop the spread of the virus in their states." Of course, nothing could be further from the truth given what we now know about Gov. Cuomo and other Democrats who had the bright idea of sending COVID-infected patients into vulnerable nursing homes.
Once a vaccine is available and widely distributed, a reality that President Trump has helped make possible, nursing home patients are expected to be first in line for inoculation.
Tanden's progressive ideas would be a disaster for the country. If Biden is serious about her nomination, Biden isn't serious about uniting the country or even his own party.