Cornyn spox: Neera Tanden has ‘no chance’ of being confirmed as Biden’s OMB pick
Neera Tanden #NeeraTanden
A spokesperson for Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said Sunday that President-elect Joe Biden’s reported pick to head the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has “no chance” of being confirmed by the Senate should Republicans remain in control next year.
In a tweet, Cornyn spokesman Drew Brandewie said that Center for American Progress head Neera Tanden’s past history of “disparaging comments about the Republican Senators’ whose votes she’ll need” made her confirmation highly unlikely. Tanden would need 51 votes in the Senate to become head of OMB; Democrats currently control 48 seats in the Senate, though they are hoping to pick up two more in Georgia as the state’s Senate elections head to a runoff in January.
The statement from Brandewie is a departure from his boss’s remarks earlier this month. Cornyn said that Biden’s win over President Trump in the 2020 election would not be assured until all states have certified their votes. Trump has refused to concede the election, and launched a host of legal challenges seeking to overturn results in various states that have yet to see any measure of success.
“He is not president-elect until the votes are certified. So the answer to that is no,” Cornyn said, according to the Dallas Morning News. “And I don’t know what basis you or anybody else would claim that he’s president-elect before the votes are certified and these contests are resolved.”
The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that Tanden would be Biden’s pick to lead OMB. She has led the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, since 2010. During the 2016 election, Tanden was a top ally of the Democratic Party’s then-nominee, Hillary Clinton (D), and was seen at the time as a likely candidate for a White House role.
Representatives for Biden’s transition team did not immediately return a request for comment from The Hill.