Beautiful Virgin Islands

Friday, Jan 23, 2026

Biden OMB pick Neera Tanden spread conspiracy theory about Trump’s 2016 win

Biden OMB pick Neera Tanden spread conspiracy theory about Trump’s 2016 win

Neera Tanden, President-elect Joe Biden’s new appointee as director of the Office of Management and Budget, spread baseless conspiracy theories after the 2016 election insisting that Hillary Clinton lost to President Trump because Russian hackers flipped votes.
The 50-year-old president of liberal think tank Center for American Progress and long-time Clinton loyalist served as an unpaid adviser during her 2016 White House bid and repeatedly claimed in the weeks after Trump’s victory that Clinton only lost because of Kremlin operatives.

In a series of tweets, some still online Monday, Tanden claimed the “Russians did enough damage to affect more than 70k votes in 3 states,” referring to Clinton’s losing margin in the Rust Belt states of Michigan and Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

As first reported by Intercept co-founder Glenn Greenwald, Tanden began just days after the election baselessly suggesting that Russian hackers had switched votes from Clinton to Trump.

“Why would hackers hack in unless they could change results? What’s the point?” she speculated, suggesting this was why “Trump was as surprised as everyone else” by his win.

Her selection on Monday as Biden’s OMB chief, a hugely important role that oversees the administration’s financial management, quickly went down in flames as Republicans said there was no chance she would be confirmed by a GOP-controlled Senate.

Tanden has a history of making inflammatory comments about Republican senators, comments which she swiftly began deleting on Monday after news of her confirmation broke.

Josh Holmes, former chief of staff to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), speculated on Twitter that Tanden’s nomination was a “sacrifice to the confirmation gods,” while Garrett Ventry, an ex-adviser to the Senate Judiciary Committee’s GOP majority, said it would be “a funeral.”

Tanden would need 51 votes in the Senate to become chief of the OMB. Democrats control 48 seats but are hoping to pick up two more in the Georgia Senate runoff elections Jan. 5.

Regardless, Drew Brandewie , a spokesman for Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), put her chances at “zero.”

“Neera Tanden, who has an endless stream of disparaging comments about the Republican Senators’ whose votes she’ll need, stands zero chance of being confirmed,” he wrote Monday.

Anticipating a fight, Democrats like Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio immediately began fortifying Tanden’s bid, calling her “smart, experienced, and qualified for the position.”

Unveiling his economic team Monday, Biden also announced Cecilia Rouse to direct the Council of Economic Advisers, which provides the president with objective economic advice.

Biden will inherit the White House amid an unprecedented economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, but in a March interview with Vox, Rouse, a former member of President Barack Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, claimed the US didn’t need any financial stimulus.

“Right now, we don’t need stimulus. We need the opposite of stimulus,” Rouse claimed. “We want the economy to stop, in many ways. Right now, we need liquidity. We need people to be able to pay bills.”

Gridlocked for months, Congress has yet to vote on extending small-business Paycheck Protection Program loans or the $600-per-week federal boost to unemployment insurance with millions of Americans out of work.

On Sunday, the former veep also named his all-female communications shop, which will be led by Kate Bedingfield, who was his campaign communications director.

Anti-Trump activist Karine Jean-Pierre, formerly Vice President-elect Kamala Harris’ chief of staff, will serve as a principal deputy press secretary to Biden.

Jean-Pierre, a former MSNBC contributor, also has a history of peddling conspiracy theories, claiming in a March interview on the liberal network that the president claimed the coronavirus was “a hoax.”

In October 2017, Jean-Pierre also claimed that Trump was “essentially defecating on women” by allegedly signing unspecified executive orders to take away their rights, and in January 2019 insisted that the president’s criticism of the intelligence community felt like “authoritarianism.”
Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
Trump Reverses Course and Criticises UK-Mauritius Chagos Islands Agreement
Elizabeth Hurley Tells UK Court of ‘Brutal’ Invasion of Privacy in Phone Hacking Case
UK Bond Yields Climb as Report Fuels Speculation Over Andy Burnham’s Return to Parliament
Prince William to Make Official Visit to Saudi Arabia in February
Prince Harry Breaks Down in London Court, Says UK Tabloids Have Made Meghan Markle’s Life ‘Absolute Misery’
Malin + Goetz UK Business Enters Administration, All Stores Close
EU and UK Reject Trump’s Greenland-Linked Tariff Threats and Pledge Unified Response
UK Deepfake Crackdown Puts Intense Pressure on Musk’s Grok AI After Surge in Non-Consensual Explicit Images
Prince Harry Becomes Emotional in London Court, Invokes Memory of Princess Diana in Testimony Against UK Tabloids
UK Inflation Rises Unexpectedly but Interest Rate Cuts Still Seen as Likely
Starmer Steps Back from Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ Amid Strained US–UK Relations
Prince Harry’s Lawyer Tells UK Court Daily Mail Was Complicit in Unlawful Privacy Invasions
UK Government Approves China’s ‘Mega Embassy’ in London Amid Debate Over Security and Diplomacy
Trump Cites UK’s Chagos Islands Sovereignty Shift as Justification for Pursuing Greenland Acquisition
UK Government Weighs Australia-Style Social Media Ban for Under-Sixteens Amid Rising Concern Over Online Harm
Trump Aides Say U.S. Has Discussed Offering Asylum to British Jews Amid Growing Antisemitism Concerns
UK Seeks Diplomatic De-escalation with Trump Over Greenland Tariff Threat
Prince Harry Returns to London as High Court Trial Begins Over Alleged Illegal Tabloid Snooping
High-Speed Train Collision in Southern Spain Kills at Least Twenty-One and Injures Scores
Meghan Markle May Return to the U.K. This Summer as Security Review Advances
Trump’s Greenland Tariff Threat Sparks EU Response and Risks Deep Transatlantic Rift
Prince Harry’s High Court Battle With Daily Mail Publisher Begins in London
Trump’s Tariff Escalation Presents Complex Challenges for the UK Economy
UK Prime Minister Starmer Rebukes Trump’s Greenland Tariff Strategy as Transatlantic Tensions Rise
Prince Harry’s Last Press Case in UK Court Signals Potential Turning Point in Media and Royal Relations
OpenAI to Begin Advertising in ChatGPT in Strategic Shift to New Revenue Model
GDP Growth Remains the Most Telling Barometer of Britain’s Economic Health
Prince William and Kate Middleton Stay Away as Prince Harry Visits London Amid Lingering Rift
Britain Braces for Colder Weather and Snow Risk as Temperatures Set to Plunge
Mass Protests Erupt as UK Nears Decision on China’s ‘Mega Embassy’ in London
Prince Harry to Return to UK to Testify in High-Profile Media Trial Against Associated Newspapers
Keir Starmer Rejects Trump’s Greenland Tariff Threat as ‘Completely Wrong’
Trump to hit Europe with 10% tariffs until Greenland deal is agreed
Prince Harry Returns to UK High Court as Final Privacy Trial Against Daily Mail Publisher Begins
Britain Confronts a Billion-Pound Wind Energy Paradox Amid Grid Constraints
The graduate 'jobpocalypse': Entry-level jobs are not shrinking. They are disappearing.
Cybercrime, Inc.: When Crime Becomes an Economy. How the World Accidentally Built a Twenty-Trillion-Dollar Criminal Economy
The Return of the Hands: Why the AI Age Is Rewriting the Meaning of “Real Work”
UK PM Kier Scammer Ridicules Tories With "Kamasutra"
Strategic Restraint, Credible Force, and the Discipline of Power
United Kingdom and Norway Endorse NATO’s ‘Arctic Sentry’ Mission Including Greenland
Woman Claiming to Be Freddie Mercury’s Secret Daughter Dies at Forty-Eight After Rare Cancer Battle
UK Launches First-Ever ‘Town of Culture’ Competition to Celebrate Local Stories and Boost Communities
Planned Sale of Shell and Exxon’s UK Gas Assets to Viaro Energy Collapses Amid Regulatory and Market Hurdles
UK Intensifies Arctic Security Engagement as Trump’s Greenland Rhetoric Fuels Allied Concern
Meghan Markle Could Return to the UK for the First Time in Nearly Four Years If Security Is Secured
Meghan Markle Likely to Return to UK Only if Harry Secures Official Security Cover
UAE Restricts Funding for Emiratis to Study in UK Amid Fears Over Muslim Brotherhood Influence
EU Seeks ‘Farage Clause’ in Brexit Reset Talks to Safeguard Long-Term Agreement Stability
Starmer’s Push to Rally Support for Action Against Elon Musk’s X Faces Setback as Canada Shuns Ban
×