The Joe Biden administration is
planning to withdraw the nomination
for Neera Tanden to serve as
the Director of the Office of
Management and Budget.
This has been an ongoing
controversy when it comes to
the Senate confirmations.
Democratic Senator Joe Manchin
raised his hand early on in
the process and noted that he would
be unwilling to vote in favor of
nominating Neera Tanden, meaning
that the Senate would unlikely have
the votes necessary to confirm her.
There was a period of time where it
appeared as though the Biden
administration would really fight
on behalf of Neera Tanden.
And then at that point, there were
reporters asking questions
about why the administration was
willing to fight so hard for
a nominee, but was not willing to
fight hard when it came to a $15
an hour minimum wage.
And so now it appears
that Neera Tanden is willing
to withdraw the nomination.
The White House is also willing
to do it.
This story is developing as we
speak, but it's also worth noting
that the confirmation hearing for
Shalanda Young happened today, and
she was nominated by Joe Biden to
serve as the Deputy Director for
the Office of Management and
Budget.
And based on what we're seeing from
reporting in Politico,
both democrats and republicans
seem to favor her not just as
the Deputy Director of the OMB but
as the Director of the OMB.
Which to be quite honest with you,
gives me a little bit of
pause especially when you hear from
people like Senator Lindsey Graham
saying things like this to
Shalanda Young, quote, you'll get
my support, maybe for both jobs.
Everybody who deals with
you on our side has nothing but
good things to say.
You might talk me out of voting for
you, but I doubt it.
So who is Shalonda Young?
Why is she part of this discussion
now?
Well Biden nominated her again
as the Deputy Director for the OMB,
and she's been a long time staffer
within the House of
Representatives.
She's been the staff director for
the House Appropriations Committee.
And she's been tasked with reaching
bipartisan funding bills within
the House of Representatives.
To be quite honest with you,
I don't know too much about
her past as we speak.
But I do plan on digging more into
her career to see where she really
stands on issues that matter to us.
But for now, this seems to be good
news, especially considering
the fact that Neera Tanden had
all sorts of conflicts of interest
as she had served as the head of
the Center for American Progress,
which had received quite a bit of
funding from major corporations and
from foreign actors as well.
That's something that concerned me
because she would be the head of
an important government agency that
puts out studies that help our
lawmakers make decisions about
where to focus or
target our resources.
I don't want the Office of
Management and
Budget to be a favor factory for
Neera Tanden's previous clients at
the Center for American Progress.
But I do want to get your thoughts,
Francesca.
The reason like,
senators don't like her is
because of her mean tweets.
I think that's honestly ridiculous.
They don't seem at all concerned
about Neera Tanden's conflicts of
interest, but
I know we care about that.
So do you think this is good news?
>> I mean, it's good,
she withdrew her nomination and so
Biden then accepted it.
And one of the lines in it is,
I think that the administration
needs to focus on other things, and
I don't think she's wrong.
So on that I feel like it was
the right move to withdraw her
nomination.
Why make this a sticking point?
Especially when she's not really
exciting anyone, like no one's
really behind her, and she is
seen as a Hillary Clinton insider.
I'm just going to say it, she's
seen as more of a Clinton insider.
We know all the things that she has
said and done when it comes to
trying to thwart any efforts
toward Medicare for All.
She is very much a status quo type
of figure, but actually a little
bit of an outsider.
So it's interesting that they might
go with Shalanda Young who is an
insider, but I guess, more familiar
with the actual republicans and
the lawmakers that are there.
So I don't know, whatever it,
whatever we need to do to
get it done.
I'm not sure Shalanda Young is much
to the left of Neera.
I know there were other choices for
the Director of OMB that were even
worse than Neera Tanden that was
caught raising some alarm bells.
So I'm just kind of like,
this has been a long few weeks.
Everyone knows who Neera Tanden
is now.
I don't know, go with God, but
let's get to work.
>> Right, right.
So we'll see how this plays out,
just because republicans favor
Young doesn't mean that she'll have
the nomination from Joe Biden to
serve as the Director of the Office
of Management and Budget, but
we don't know for sure.
I mean, we'll see how
this plays out.
As I mentioned,
the story is developing as we're
speaking right now.
And we'll fill you guys in
as we learn more.
But it is again interesting that
the thing that really seemed to
upset our lawmakers was the fact
that their feelings
were hurt through tweets.
I mean that has been the priority
in fighting back against
Neera Tanden as the nominee here.
Look, at the end of the day,
I don't want Neera Tanden in that
role, so I'm happy with her
withdrawing her nomination.
But I just wish that we had
lawmakers who understood the actual
issues with Neera Tanden, as
opposed to just focusing on their
like personal beef with her and
her behavior on Twitter and
social media.
It's just ridiculous.
>> I mean, this is the party that
had an entire conference called
America Uncancelled.
And yet you're scared and
sad about Neera Tanden's tweets so
you effectively cancel her.
I mean, that's essentially what
happened, right?
They're so mad about
her old tweets.
And so you kind of look ahead and
you're like, okay,
if AOC were to be nominated, right,
would there be something in all
of her tweets right?
Like she goes toe to toe with
Ted Cruz, dunks on him regularly,
wins every time.
Does that disqualify her because
she did mean things?
So you're absolutely right.
The rationale is wrong and
like once again, another, hm, I
guess cancel culture doesn't apply
to republicans when they wield it.
But you know, that's fine,
let's move forward.
I'm glad she's not going to be
the director.