Well, Joe Biden has apparently
found backup positions for
a few of his key allies who were
blocked in their initial quest to
enter his administration.
That would be Neera Tanden and
a little guy named Rahm Emanuel.
So let's start with Neera Tanden.
So her nomination to
lead the Office of Management and
Budget was derailed by bipartisan
opposition in the Senate.
She'll be becoming a senior advisor
to President Joe Biden,
two White House officials told
NBC News last week.
So initially wanted to run
the Office of Management and
Budget, what will she be doing now?
Well she'll be responsible for
preparing for
different contingencies.
This is like a sentence designed to
make you fall asleep and
not follow what it's saying.
Responsible for preparing for
different contingencies that could
result from the Supreme Court's
consideration of Republican
lawsuits seeking to strike down
the Affordable Care Act.
She's also going to launch a review
of the United States digital
service, which The White House says
has a crucial mission of
making government accessible
to the American people online.
So I'm sure there's some overlap
between how that job will function,
how running the OMB would, I guess,
management skills will come in
handy.
But it is fascinating that, man,
once you want to get into
the government, just whatever,
I want to be president.
I'll take transportation,
whatever, same thing, it's so
weird how that works.
But anyway, you probably of course,
remember she got into trouble
during her hearings because of some
of her social media posts,
with Republicans suddenly
pretending that people being mean
online is a really bad thing and
they would never stand for that.
That's not actually why she was
blocked.
But what do you think about
her new position as a senior aide
to Joe Biden?
These are her roles right now, but
that could
morph into virtually anything.
>> So I have mixed feelings
about all this.
So number one, in the old days,
Neera Tanden and
the likes of Rahm Emanuel would
have run any Democratic
administration that came in.
Especially one as historically
conservative as Joe Biden.
And so now Rahm Emanuel is probably
going to get ambassador to Japan.
And so that's the thing that makes,
is a consolation prize.
And so he'll get to call himself
ambassador for the rest of his life
and he'll feel good about that.
And most of these guys in politics
only care about ego, right?
So that'll fulfill his ego a little
bit, but it is irrelevant in
terms of policy.
So good, Rahm Emanuel is not
in charge, right.
So now Neera Tanden then,
another would call them moderate,
but I would call them economically
right wing Democrats,
got blocked by the Senate.
Now this is where it gets
complicated.
I disagreed with the Senate
blocking him, blocking all of
the the picks because they were all
very safe, very moderate.
Neera Tanden's more moderate and
more corporate than almost any of
them, and they said she was too
extreme, right?
And so no, it's absurd to
think that she was too extreme for
Republicans.
And I didn't want the Republicans-
>> Or too profane.
>> Come on, with Donald Trump as
president, come on, come on,
come on, come on, right.
So I didn't want to set
the precedent that the Republicans
get to pick Biden's cabinet.
So I thought they should have
fought more for her, but not based
on her or her ideology, but
on principle that the Republicans
should not set the cabinet.
But once they lost that fight and
Biden withdrew her, then I got no
interest in Neera Tanden and
I don't want Neera Tanden to be
a senior adviser to Joe Biden.
She'll probably be
his most conservative advisor.
And in terms of what's
more powerful,
OMB director is very powerful
because it controls the budget.
But remember, it doesn't really
control the budget,
it controls the first draft.
That's still a lot of power, right,
the first draft is very,
very powerful.
But at the end of the day they're
going to make joint decisions.
Senior advisor means you're
in the room.
>> Yeah.
>> And they found an excuse to put
her in the room,
if we're being honest about it,
right, and we are and
the rest of the media won't.
But if the ACA, the Affordable Care
Act, gets knocked down in part
by the Supreme Court and
she's preparing ahead of time for
it, that is a super vague role.
And then she's going to do digital
blah, blah, blah, no, no, no,
that's being- >> Just hang around.
>> Yeah, that means hang around and
she's in the White House every day,
in the daily briefings every day,
and give me conservative
pro-corporate advice.
No, that gives her more power,
not less power.
And so I do not
like this development at all.
I don't think Neera Tanden should
have gotten that job,
but it's not up to me.
The chief of staff Ron Klain
is old friends with her,
they worked together before.
And they were going to get her in
by hook or by crook, so this means
unfortunately Rahm Emanuel
getting sidelined was good news.
I was hoping that she would get
a minor role and that it would be
generally good news, progressives
are rising a little bit, and
the conservative
Democrats are falling a little bit.
But given that she's going to be in
the Oval Office every day, no,
it is not good news.
They are not falling,
conservative Democrats still very
relevant in Joe Biden's circle.
>> Yeah,
I agree with you on her 100%.
Let me go to Rahm Emanuel,
I don't like him.
[LAUGH] >> He's the worst
Mayor Chicago has ever had.
He has engaged in systemic cover up
the murder of Laquan McDonald.
He did some other things that were
contrary to growth and
progress in that city.
When Rahm Emanuel's named came up
during the election of Joe Biden,
black folks made it very clear,
Joe, don't go there.
This is a guy that we have deemed
to be a no, okay?
He disappears for a moment, and
after Joe Biden gets elected
because a whole lot of black people
showed up in places
like Candler Road in the state of
Georgia, the Democratic primary in
South Carolina that changed
the entire trajectory for Biden.
When things like that started
happening, we made an assumption
that Joe Biden will listen to black
folks.
And then Joe Biden when he finally
makes his acceptance speech,
he uses the term or the phrase,
you have my back, to the black
community, and I got yours.
Well Joe, this is not having our
back, Mr. President.
We don't want Rahm Emanuel anywhere
near government.
I get it, being ambassador to
Japan, that is kind of a sideline
position, I feel like these guys
are somewhere feening for
government jobs.
And it's almost like, just give me
what ever you got, right.
I'm tired of it because it sends
the wrong message to the group that
you need to come back out and
be excited to vote for you.
We're not excited about voting for
you again or people connected to
you when you give positions of
nobility and power to individuals
who have been contrary
to the progress of Black Americans.
And that's the reality of this
pick to me.
>> That's just a fact.
>> Yep.
>> And so Joe Biden forever
thinks he's balancing interests,
and I get the urge to
do that when you're president.
But there are such things as red
lines, and there's very good reason
for Rahm Emanuel to be a red line
both for progressives and
African Americans.
And why would you pick a guy so
conservative that he is universally
despised not by Republicans,
Republicans are generally fine
with him.
There's all this talk about
how tough Rahm Emanuel is.
He's never ever ever been
tough to a Republican.
I've never seen one instance of it,
and I have followed the news with
microscopic attention.
He's only been tough to
progressives, he's celebrated for
being a person who hates
progressives.
And he was awful to
African Americans in Chicago.
So what do you owe him?
And why do you owe him so much that
you're willing to go against your
base, your core of your base,
to give him this job?
And the reality is they just can't
let go of the past.
So they love conservative
Democrats, they love corporate
Democrats, and this is Joe Biden
showing that love to them.
>> Yeah, yeah, and it's believing
that positions in government,
a government salary is just yours
to hand out.
I mean how many times over the last
four years did we get enraged at
the corruption and
grift of the Trump family, handing
out things to his family members,
giving them positions they weren't
qualified for?
This is the same thing.
Rahm Emanuel's not Joe Biden's
brother or anything, but
it's our resources, our tax dollars
being put into a guy who's just
getting something because he's been
around for a while.
He didn't earn it,
he's not going to work for it,
he's just been given it.
We should be as angry as we were
back under the Trump's.
>> And he doesn't have a history of
success.
I could understand if some
individuals probably may
not ideologically align with my
full agenda, but they have a marked
history of success somewhere.
You have with this cat a marked
history of failure, and you're
still making him win somehow,
you're still creating positions for
him to win.
There are people that are actually
winning who are progressives,
who have great ideas,
who have been able to implement and
execute these ideas.
And you are universally known to
the vast majority of them because
they're not your buddy, buddy.
And here's what's happening
in Democratic politics, and
it happens in Republican politics.
It's the good old boy network,
that's what it is.
This is the good old boy network
Democratic style.
It has a little more swag, but
it's the same thing.