Neera Tanden keeps getting asked
about her conflicts of interest
because as the head of the Center
for American Progress,
the organization took in money from
corporate interests,
from foreign interests and
now that she's a facing senate
hearings to potentially confirm
her as the head of the Office of
Management and Budget.
These issues are coming up.
So Senator Bernie Sanders asked her
about it recently.
Let's hear what he had to say and
how she answered.
>> Your attacks were not just bait
against Republicans,
there were vicious attacks made
against a progressives, people who
I have worked with, me personally.
So as you,
come before this committee,
to assume a very important role in
the United States government,
at a time when we need serious work
on serious issues and not personal
attacks on anybody, whether
they're on the left or the right.
Can you reflect a little bit about
some of your decisions and
the personal statements that you
have made in recent years?
>> Yes, Senator, I really
appreicate that question, and
I recognize that my language and
my expressions on social media
caused hurt to people, and
I feel badly about that.
>> Now she does get asked about her
behavior on social media
quite a bit.
Senator Sanders also asked about
the Center for American Progress
and how it had taken money from
corporate interests and I
think that's a legitimate concern.
Honestly, it's in my opinion,
a more important concern than what
she tweeted about even though
her tweets were pretty horrendous,
but what do you think
about that line of questioning and
the way that she's been handling
herself during these hearings?
>> I'm certainly grateful that
Bernie uses his sort of public
pulpit as a way to sort of signal,
look man, she's one of those
people, right she's she's very
closely tied to to the corporate
interests of America, and
she's now going to have a prominent
place in the administration of one
Joe Biden.
I can't say this enough,
I can't stress it enough that it's
important that people say
this stuff out loud.
Like that it's on the public record
that so that when something doesn't
go the way it was supposed to,
we can say look, we we pointed it
out as it was happening,
we're not because because that's
what they do.
They be like,
nobody's saying that at the time,
everybody was cool with it.
We're having a revisionist history,
no, no, we were right then,
and we're right now when it goes
completely wrong, right?
If or when that happens,
of course we're keeping hopes
alive and keep saying, no,
I just say keep hope alive.
We're staying hopeful that things
work out in a way that we would
like to but I think it's important
that Bernie says this out
loud in a public forum.
That being said, what wasn't
pictured there was Lindsey Graham,
immediately jumped to her defence
and said what well, I don't think
there's anything wrong with getting
corporate donations, it
doesn't mean that they own you, or
that you're in anybody's pocket.It
just means that, you owe them.
[LAUGH] >> So that exchange is
important, the exchange where
Bernie, specifically talks about,
the Center for American Progress,
and the millions and
millions of dollars that
organization that think tank
received from corporations.
So here's where that interaction
happened.
>> Before I vote
on your nomination,
it is important for me and
members of this committee to know
that those donations that you have
secured a cap will not influence
your decision making at the OMB.
Further I would like to hear how
you plan to work with this
committee and the Congress to enact
the promises that President Biden
made to the American people.
>> She don't like that.
What is she writing?
What are her notes?
What are you writing girl?
Like I want to know what
your notes say.
I want to know, like I can't stand
him a man I meant everything
I tweeted about him.
>> Of course.
>> And I'm like it's important what
you said though which is that,
obviously what she says on Twitter
is less important than these
corporate donations.
But I find it very hard to believe
that the two things are not
directly related.
That one does not flow from
the other that you talk about
Bernie Sanders in a certain type
of way on a public forum,
while everybody knows you're one of
Hillary Clinton's, home girls, for
lack of a better term.
How can I believe that that's
unconnected from the fact that
Bernie Sanders is probably the most
anti corporate salesperson in
the entire American government?
How can I think that
those two are not interlocked and
related to one another?
I'm sorry, I would need to be
convinced otherwise,
I don't care what she says at this
committee today.
I wouldn't need to be convinced
otherwise that the two things
aren't related.
>> No, you're absolutely
right about that.
So, back in 2019 Bernie Sanders did
write a scathing letter to
the Center for American Progress,
accusing the organization of bad
faith smears and criticizing Tandon
for calling quote, for unity,
while simultaneously maligning my
staff and supporters and
belittling progressive ideas.
And so why does she have this giant
interest in criticizing or
belittling progressivism and
doing something about inequality in
this country?
Well Tanden,
has received quite a bit of money,
I should say the Center for
American Progress under her
leadership has received quite a bit
of money from corporate companies,
$33 million from companies like
Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase,
and Google since 2014 alone.
So you're right Twitter is
used as a vehicle to help bolster
the interests of donors right,
the donors for Center for
American Progress.
She would go after Bernie Sanders
and progressive politicians like
Sanders on behalf of her donors,
and l think that is an issue.
And remember if she gets confirmed
she would be the head of the office
of management and budget.
This is supposed to
be an independent government
agency that puts out unbiased data
regarding the impact of budgetary
policy, right?
And so if she has
this these conflicts of interest,
is she going to carry out her job
appropriately?
And I think that that's the most
important question to ask.
I'm happy to see that not only
Bernie Sanders asked it even
someone who I find is disgusting as
senator Josh Holley also asked
that question and
I think it's a legitimate concern.
So yeah, we'll see what happens,
it might.
>> Always remember Anna,
JPMorgan Chase and BFA, these are
great American companies that have
nothing but uplift the American
working class and normal people
since the very inception, obviously