President Joe Biden’s pick to lead the Office of Management and Budget Neera Tanden is coming under fire for her past tweets, but Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) is defending her.
Durbin is pointing to former President Donald Trump’s tweets.
He was asked by CNN’s Wolf Blitzer if Biden should withdraw Tanden’s nomination and pick someone else, to which the senator responded, “That’s not a decision for me to make.”
“Sure, she went overboard when it came to those Twitter accounts and the things that she said,” he said. “And she said as much and apologized, said she was sorry for what she did in that respect.”
Durbin then pointed to Trump — who used to go on tweeting sprees, before he was permanently banned from the platform — as he said, “Think of the barrage of… tweets that we lived with for four years with this president.”
“There were two words not in his vocabulary: ‘I’m sorry,'” Durbin added. “She said she was sorry.”
The Democratic lawmaker called it “sad” to see “someone with her ability being denied an opportunity to serve this nation.”
Watch Durbin’s comments below:
Sen. Dick Durbin: "It's really sad to see someone with her [Tanden] ability being denied an opportunity to serve this nation." https://t.co/j9bDrk9jYY pic.twitter.com/Klo8WxKQZ2
— The Hill (@thehill) February 25, 2021
It is unclear if Tanden will be confirmed, as she is facing pushback over her past tweets criticizing lawmakers.
All Democrats in the Senate would need to back Tanden, even with no Republican support, to confirm her as Vice President Kamala Harris would cast the tie-breaking vote. However, one Democrat has already said he will not vote to support her, which means Democrats need at least one Republican.
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) indicated on Friday he would oppose Biden’s nomination of Tanden, “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.”
A key senator like Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) remains undecided on her vote. She did, however, express concerns.
Murkowski told reporters on Wednesday, “It seems that in this world we’ve kind of gotten numb to derogatory tweets. I don’t think that that’s a model that we want to set for anybody whether it’s a nominee, whether it’s a President or whether it’s a senator. So I’d like us all to cool that.”
Other senators like Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Mitt Romney (R-Utah) have made known they will reject Biden’s nominee.
On Wednesday, two Senate committees postponed the hearing for Tanden.
“I think it’s no secret she’s lacking the votes right now, and she’s working hard to try to get the votes,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said during Wednesday’s press briefing, “There’s one nominee to lead the Budget department, her name’s Neera Tanden. And that’s who we’re continuing to fight for.”
