Neera Tanden once tweeted that “Vampires have more hearts than Ted Cruz”
Political and government experts beat up Senate Republicans, particularly Ohio Senator Rob Portman, for attempting to block the confirmation of President Joe Biden’s election as the next director of the powerful Bureau of Administration and Budget, Neera Tanden.
Tanden, president of the Progressive Think Tanks Center for American Progress, has been accused of posting some mean and “salty” tweets about Republicans over the years.
“I deeply regret and apologize for my language and some of my previous languages,” Tanden said Monday to the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, as Politico reported. “I know I have to earn the Senators’ trust across the board.”
Senator Rob Portman read out some of the tweets criticizing Republicans during their confirmation hearing, including Senators Susan Collins from Maine, Tom Cotton from Arkansas, Ted Cruz from Texas and Mitch McConnell, Senate minority leaders.
“To mention just a few of the thousands of negative public statements,” Portman accused, “you wrote that Susan Collins is the worst, that Tom Cotton is a fraud, that vampires have more hearts than Ted Cruz.” You called Leader McConnell: Moscow Mitch and Voldemort and so on and so on. “
Ethics in Government Expert Walter Shaub, the former head of the Office of Government Ethics, tweeted Tuesday, “Perhaps I’m not the most objective observer of the problem, but ‘your tweets about us were mean’ ‘doesn’t seem like a valid reason not to be a qualified candidate to confirm. “
He offered a “compromise”:
Here’s a compromise: if you want, you can insult you with 280 characters during the hearing, but you should confirm anyway.
– Walter Shaub (@waltshaub), February 9, 2021
Shaub is nowhere near the only one criticizing Portman and other Republican senators who, many observed, pretended to be unaware of all of the “mean” and insulting tweets made by former President Donald for more than four years Trump until his report was released was shut down for violating Twitter guidelines.
Co-founder of the Save Journalism Project:
The “I Didn’t See the Tweet” crowd just posted a coffee table book of Neera’s tweets. I love it
– Laura Bassett (@LEBassett) February 9, 2021
Democratic strategist:
The definition of cowardice is that Rob Portman and his Republican friends ignore tweets from the President of the United States for four years but pretend to be offended by tweets from Neera Tanden. Sure, TV anchor, tell us what a good Portman is.
– Adam Parkhomenko (@AdamParkhomenko) February 9, 2021
Daily KOS Political Director:
So Rob Portman worries about Neera Tanden’s salty tweets that he somehow could be paying attention to. But when Trump tweeted outrageous things, he found a way to diligently ignore them – see below (via @CahnEmily at @AmerIndependent) https://t.co/YD5i3JN8U1 https://t.co/xybJA1kAcN
– David Nir (@DavidNir) February 9, 2021
Former Senior Advisor to Obama:
No one reporting on Neera Tanden’s Konfrination hearing has to pretend these Republicans are anything but crappy when it comes to their tweets.
– Dan Pfeiffer (@danpfeiffer) February 9, 2021
White House reporter for the Washington Post:
Democratic aide sends this story: //t.co/8jhu5hbVxk
– Jeff Stein (@JStein_WaPo) February 9, 2021
Bloomberg reporter:
Republican senators who earlier said they hadn’t seen Trump’s tweet read 17 times an hour on CNN will suddenly be very familiar with years of tweets from Biden nominees.
– Ryan Teague Beckwith (@ryanbeckwith) November 30, 2020
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