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New Delhi: Indian-American Neera Tanden, who has been nominated by US President Joe Biden as his budget chief, faces a tough confirmation process due to her history of “mean tweets”. Tanden’s nomination as the first Indian-American and the first woman of colour to serve as director of the US Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is in. President Biden's nominee to lead the Office of Management and Budget, Neera Tanden, is not suited for the position, 'The View' co-host Meghan McCain argued Thursday, pointing to past anti.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden’s choice to the lead the Office of Management and Budget apologized Tuesday for spending years attacking top Republicans on social media as she tried to convince senators she’ll leave partisan politics behind if confirmed.

Neera Tanden also admitted to spending “many months” removing past Twitter posts, saying, “I deleted tweets because I regretted them.” But she refused to say she did so to help her nomination.

“I know there have been some concerns about some of my past language on social media, and I regret that language and take responsibility for it,” Tanden, a former adviser to Hillary Clinton and the president of the center-left Center for American Progress, told a Senate committee.

She later added, “I deeply regret and apologize for my language.”

Tanden would be the first woman of color to lead the OMB. Her nomination requires approval from the Senate, which has moved fairly quickly to pass many of Biden’s choices for powerful posts. That’s despite it being divided 50-50 among Democrats and Republicans and this week grappling with the second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump.

Democrats hold the majority thanks to the tie-breaking vote of Vice President Kamala Harris. None in the party have yet opposed Tanden, meaning she’s likely to ultimately be approved. But Republicans have signaled that the process may trigger a political battle unseen with other Biden nominees, given her history of criticism of GOP lawmakers she’d now have to work with.

Republican Ohio Sen. Rob Portman noted that, despite going back and trying “to cover what you said” by deleting tweets, copious ”harsh” criticism” and “personal attacks about specific senators” endured. He said that included Tanden calling Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton “a fraud” and tweeting that “vampires have more heart” than Ted Cruz, R-Texas.

Oklahoma Republican Sen. James Lankford said Tanden had tweeted more over the past four years than even Trump did.

“Something that this committee’s asked pretty frequently of nominees is, ‘Will you commit to working across the aisle?,’” Lankford said. “And that’s one that we have to ask you a little more blunt than others because it’s been pretty clear that hasn’t been your position in the past.”

Tanden said she recognizes “that this role is a bipartisan role, and I know I have to earn the trust of senators across the board.”

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday that Biden remains confident Tanden will get confirmed, but that no one in the administration directed her to apologize to ease the process.

“We certainly did not ask her to make any specific comments in her testimony,” Psaki said.

With the coronavirus pandemic wreaking havoc on the economy, Tanden promised that she’d use the post of budget chief to “vigorously enforce my ironclad belief that our government should serve all Americans, regardless of party, in every corner of the country.”

Still, Senate discussion of Tanden’s nomination is likely to center more on her past tweets than her budget priorities. Cotton has said they were “filled with hate.” Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn suggested previously that she’d face “certainly a problematic path” to nomination.

Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley offered another potential line of Republican criticism on Tuesday, noting that the Center for American Progress had collected large donations from Wall Street firms and groups associated with major tech firms while Tanden headed it.

“How can you ensure us that you’ll work to see that these Silicon Valley and Wall Street firms don’t exercise undo influence,” Hawley asked, “in the making of government policy and the control of our economy?”

Tanden replied that she’d called for higher taxes on tech companies and more regulation of Wall Street and major corporate interests because “we should be moving to rebalance power in our economy.”

A Cabinet nominee not making it to the finish line is a story as old as Washington. In the past, nominees have been forced to withdraw because of things like hiring undocumented workers or a questionable business deal or an unwillingness to be as transparent about your past life as our modern politics demands.

But with Neera Tanden's nomination by President Joe Biden to be the director of the Office of Management and Budget, we may be witnessing the first nominee derailed by Twitter.

On Friday, West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin announced that he wouldn't support Tanden's nomination because of her past tweets savaging a number of Manchin's colleagues.

'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. I believe 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,' said Manchin. 'For this reason, I cannot support her nomination.'

Manchin's announcement imperiled Tanden's nomination, as Democrats control only 50 seats in the Senate. With Manchin against her, Tanden now needs at least one Republican senator to back her nomination for her to make it. And early Monday morning, the Republican considered one of the most likely to back her said she would not -- again because of Twitter.

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Here's Maine Sen. Susan Collins on her opposition to the Tanden nomination:

'Neera Tanden has neither the experience nor the temperament to lead this critical agency. Her past actions have demonstrated exactly the kind of animosity that President Biden has pledged to transcend.

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'In addition, Ms. Tanden's decision to delete more than a thousand tweets in the days before her nomination was announced raises concerns about her commitment to transparency.'

And on Monday, a statement from Sen. Mitt Romney's office made clear that he would be a 'no' on the Tanden nomination, citing Twitter as the reason.

'Senator Romney has been critical of extreme rhetoric from prior nominees, and this is consistent with that position,' spokeswoman Arielle Mueller said. 'He believes it's hard to return to comity and respect with a nominee who has issued a thousand mean tweets.'

While Tanden's chances are significantly less good than they were even 72 hours ago, the White House is insisting that they will continue to push for her to be confirmed.

'Neera Tanden=accomplished policy expert, would be 1st Asian American woman to lead OMB, has lived experience having benefited from a number of federal programs as a kid, looking ahead to the committee votes this week and continuing to work toward her confirmation,' tweeted White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Monday morning after the Collins statement came out.

It remains to be seen how long the White House will stand behind her.

What's fascinating about Tanden's confirmation problems is that they are almost entirely due to her active and aggressive Twitter presence. She once referred to Collins as 'the worst' and urged people to pay attention to the 'enablers' of then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell -- listing a handful of GOP senators she thought fit the bill. Tanden, a longtime aide to Hillary Clinton, also battled it out with liberals via Twitter. 'Your attacks were not just made against Republicans,' Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders said during her confirmation hearings. 'There were vicious attacks against progressives, people who I have worked with -- me personally.'

Tanden did her best to distance herself from her Twitter persona. 'My language and my expressions on social media caused hurt to people, and I feel badly about that,' she said in her confirmation hearing. 'And I really regret it and I recognize that it's really important for me to demonstrate that I can work with others. I would say social media does lead to too many personal comments and my approach will be radically different.'

(Side note: Tanden clearly understood how problematic her tweets were going to be for her. As KFile reported late last year, she began deleting thousands of tweets from her personal account soon after Biden won the election.)

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There is, of course, hypocrisy here -- particularly among Republicans, who spent the last four years saying they hadn't seen whatever the latest wild attack was that had emerged from Donald Trump's Twitter account or that it didn't matter. That suddenly someone attacking them on Twitter is disqualifying for a job in a presidential administration is quite the double standard.

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That said, if Tanden either withdraws or is rejected in a final floor vote, it will send a very clear message to those with ambitions to wind up in a presidential cabinet one day. That message? 'Never tweet.'