Rob Portman Grills Biden Nominee Neera Tanden Over Mean Tweets About Republicans: You Once Wrote, ‘Vampires Have More Heart Than Ted Cruz’
Senator Rob Portman (R-OH) interrogated Neera Tanden over her history of insulting tweets about Republicans during her testimony before the Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee.
Tanden appeared before the committee on Tuesday for a hearing on her nomination to lead the Office of Management and Budget. As Ranking Member of the committee, Portman spoke of the OMB director’s responsibility to hold bipartisan conversations with Congress, then questioned whether Tanden would be able to hold relationships or function in the role without partisanship.
“I believe that the tone, the content and the aggressive partisanship of some of your public statements have added to the troubling trend of more incivility and division in our public life,” Portman said. “And in your case, I’m concerned that your personal attacks about specific senators will make it more difficult for you to work with them.”
From there, Portman brought up numerous tweets in which Tanden called Susan Collins “the worst,” called Tom Cotton “a fraud,” likened Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to Voldemort, and said that “vampires have more heart than Ted Cruz.”
“How do you plan to mend fences and build relationships with members of Congress you have attacked through your public statements?” Portman asked.
Tanden answered by saying she understood the concern.
“I deeply regret and apologize for my language and some of my past language,” Tanden said. She added, “I recognize that this role is a bipartisan role and I know I have to earn the trust of senators across the board. I will work very aggressively to meet that concern. I know the last four years, or last few years, have been pretty polarizing, and I hope that we can work to address the country’s challenges in a bipartisan and nonpartisan manner.”
The hearing went on with Portman pressing Tanden about tweets she deleted and why she left some of her other insulting remarks up. Tanden responded that she “regretted [her] tone” from her tweets, and she faced further questions about whether she deleted them because she expected to be nominated for a job within the Biden administration.
Watch above, via C-SPAN3.
