WASHINGTON — President Biden announced Friday that Neera Tanden will replace Susan Rice as his domestic policy adviser — two years after Tanden’s online rage against Republicans and non-establishment Democrats doomed her chances of Senate confirmation as budget director.
Tanden, 52, is the former president of the wealthy donor- and corporation-funded Center for American Progress.
She will take over the 58-year-old Rice’s upstairs office in the West Wing after serving since late 2021 as Biden’s staff secretary.
“I am pleased to announce that Neera Tanden will continue to drive the formulation and implementation of my domestic policy, from economic mobility and racial equity to health care, immigration, and education,” a statement attributed to Biden said.
“As Senior Advisor and Staff Secretary, Neera oversaw decision-making processes across my domestic, economic, and national security teams. She has 25 years of experience in public policy, has served three Presidents, and led one of the largest think tanks in the country for nearly a decade.”
Stefanie Feldman will replace Tanden as staff secretary.
Tanden’s 2021 nomination to be director of the White House Office of Management and Budget failed when her nasty attack tweets surfaced — with fellow Democrats sinking her chances.
The White House domestic policy adviser job doesn’t require Senate confirmation.
Tanden deleted more than 1,000 tweets during her failed quest to lead OMB, including attacks on Republicans and non-centrist Democrats alike.
Her posts trashed the 2016 presidential bid of socialist Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders as Russia’s choice against Democratic Party favorite Hillary Clinton and accused moderate Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) of being “high” on her “own supply.”
In a humorous moment during Tanden’s confirmation hearing, Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) quipped at her: “You called Sen. Sanders everything but an ignorant slut.”
“That is not true, Senator!” Tanden exclaimed — as Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) joked into a hot mic, “I wouldn’t have said ignorant!”
Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) at one point reminded Tanden of her various attacks on the same senators she needed for confirmation: “You wrote that Susan Collins is ‘the worst,’ that Tom Cotton is a ‘fraud,’ that ‘vampires have more heart’ than Ted Cruz. You called Leader McConnell ‘Moscow Mitch’ and ‘Voldemort.’”
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) said he opposed Tanden because “her overtly 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.”
“I have carefully reviewed Neera 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,” Manchin said at the time.
Rice, who is departing as domestic policy adviser, also has a reputed mean streak.
Current and former White House officials blasted Rice to the left-leaning American Prospect magazine last year and accused her of creating an “abusive” and “dehumanizing” workplace — and she announced her departure after standing accused of ignoring reports that young migrants who illegally crossed the US-Mexico border were released to businessmen who exploited them for child labor.
Rice at one point “berated” Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and accused him of incompetence in processing migrants at the border, according to the May 2022 American Prospect article.
At a meeting where Biden also expressed his frustration to Becerra, Rice allegedly passed a note to a colleague saying of Becerra: “Don’t help him.”
