A Biden nominee faced questioning over a past tweet she sent attacking a Republican senator.
During a hearing Wednesday, Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) brought up a tweet from 2015 that was sent by Beth Prichard Geer, who was nominated to the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) board.
“As you stated in your written testimony, you believe one reason you should be confirmed to serve in the TVA is because of your ability to ‘build relationships and work together,’ is that correct?” Ernst asked.
Geer responded, “Yes, that is correct.”
“And you believe civility is a fundamental aspect of your role on the Tennessee Valley board if confirmed?”
Geer said, “I absolutely do, senator.”
That’s when Ernst brought up a tweet from the previous decade that she had a question about.
“Thank you for answering those questions honestly,” the Iowa senator responded.
However, she added, “I think it appears to be a recent sentiment. If you’ll take a look at a tweet that we also found. That’s me with darker hair, much shorter in 2015. So, you can see that Beth Geer tweeted out…’hideous.'”
“Can you explain that tweet?” Ernst asked.
Geer responded, “I can’t read it, sorry. I apologize. That’s not a way of getting out of answering the question.”
Watch the video below:
Did Biden nominate ANYONE to his administration who didn't have nasty tweets about Republicans?
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) April 6, 2022
Before she was a Biden nominee seeking Senate confirmation @bpa65 was a resistance tweeter attacking @SenJoniErnst's appearance as "hideous."
Now she's in front of her in committee. pic.twitter.com/N0DSBuVEil
She asked what quote she was responding to from Ernst in 2015.
“The quote was, ‘The new Republican Congress also understands how difficult these past six years have been,” Ernst said.
Geer responded, “Well, I apologize if I offended you, and I appreciate you bringing it to my attention. And I do, in fact, believe that civility is key, and I’m sorry that I did not demonstrate that, in your opinion, with that tweet.”
After pondering whether Geer “made a habit of calling women that disagree with you ‘hideous,'” Ernst said, “This tweet is from 2015. We heard a lot about tweets in the former administration. This is prior to that. This is not Iowa nice and I’m calling you out.”
Geer is not the first Biden nominee to face scrutiny over past tweets about senators.
Last year, Neera Tanden, who was nominated to lead the Office of Management and Budget, withdrew her nomination as she faced bipartisan opposition over past tweets she sent attacking Democratic and Republican senators.
Geer denied that she was calling Ernst’s appearance “hideous.”
“Ma’am, I’ll cut you off right there,” the senator fired back. “How else could this come across? The word hideous, to me, only has one meaning. And the views I expressed in my State of the Union response were personal experiences.
She continued, “So maybe you didn’t appreciate that I grew up on a small, rural farm in an economically disadvantaged area of Iowa. Maybe you didn’t like that my mother had to put bread bags on my shoes when I went to school.”
“Maybe you didn’t like that, but a lot of Americans have had the same experiences that I have had. And so to call my personal views hideous is an affront to half of America,” Ernst added.
