Report: Collins Unlikely To Support Tanden, Narrowing Path For Biden Nominee

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) is reportedly unlikely to vote to confirm Neera Tanden, President Joe Biden’s nominee to lead the Office of Management and Budget, a decision that would render the embattled nominee’s path to confirmation even harder than before. 

Close associates of Collins have become convinced she won’t vote to confirm Tanden, according to Axios. Although Collins hasn’t publicly taken a position, Tanden, over the years, has called her “criminally ignorant,” “the worst,” and expressed hope that she’d be haunted for the rest of her life for the way she treated Christine Blasey Ford during the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings in 2018. 

While every one of Biden’s nominees who has been put to a vote has been confirmed, Tanden threatens to change the score against the Biden administration’s favor. Last week, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) announced that he would vote against Tanden, citing “overly partisan statements” that she’s made about his Republican and Democratic colleagues: 

I have carefully reviewed Nerra Tanden’s public statements and tweets that were personally directed towards my colleagues on both sides of the aisle from Senator Sanders to Senator McConnell and others. I believe her overly 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. For this reason, I cannot support her nomination.

As I have said before, we must take meaningful steps to end the political division and dysfunction that pervades our politics,” added the Democratic senator from West Virginia. “At a time of grave crisis, it is more important than ever that we chart a new bipartisan course that helps address the many serious challenges our nation is facing.

Biden, however, has said that he doesn’t plan to pull Tanden’s nomination. According to CNN, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has been working on getting the votes necessary to confirm Tanden, a candidate he said would be a “very good” director of the Office of Management and Budget.

During committee hearings, Tanden apologized for past statements she made about others, including social media comments that she has since deleted.

“I recognize that my language and my expressions on social media caused hurt to people, and I feel badly about that,” said Tanden. “I really regret it, and I recognize it’s really important for me to demonstrate that I can work with others, and I look forward to taking that burden, and I apologize to people on either the Left or Right who are hurt by what I’ve said.”

“Social media does lead to too many personal comments, and my approach will be radically different,” she added.