More than once, it’s been suggested that assumed president-elect Joe Biden isn’t altogether with it, based on his many senior moments and downright spectacularly incredible blunders. But I have another reason.
And that is that as he has gone about naming those to join him in our nation’s capital, he has announced not one but two people who have knowingly made comments against Biden and his leadership in the past.
Of course, you will remember how his number two and chosen vice president, of all positions, once got into a rather severe verbal shouting match with Joe Biden during the Democratic presidential primaries last year. Kamala Harris had called him out for his previous stance on several bills, but more than that, she practically called him racist.
Now, I know the primaries are a different beast altogether and somewhere where that kind of animosity is something to be expected. But calling someone racist takes things to a whole other level, in any case.
And yet, when it came time for him to decide on a vice president, you know, the man or woman he would be most closely working with, he chose her.
Seems a bit odd, huh?
If you think so, then one of his most recent announcements will likely also throw you for a bit of a loop.
On Monday, Biden continued to announce his cabinet members, including the heads of the Office of Management and Budget and that of Council of Economic Advisers.
Now, the latter one is of little matter to me at the moment. However, the first is yet another woman who has spoken ill of the presumed president-elect in the past.
Enter Neera Tanden.
Tanden is the current president and CEO of Center for American Progress, a progressive organization. In addition, USA Today notes that she was once “a senior adviser in former President Bill Clinton’s administration” and “the political director for (Hillary Clinton’s) 2008 presidential campaign.”
So she might be qualified. But that’s not the point here.
In 2015, during the primary race leading up to the 2016 election, Tanden was in regular communication with another former Clinton administration staff member and the chair for Hillary’s 2016 run, John Podesta. Naturally, just about anything and everything that could affect Clinton’s run was discussed between the two.
And this included a possible entry into the ring by Joe Biden.
In October, Tanden wrote an email to Podesta using the subject line, “The good thing about a Biden run.”
Naturally, the two Hillary fans would be somewhat nervous about such a run. But apparently, not all that nervous, according to the body of the email.
Tanden wrote that it would actually be good for Biden to run because “he would make Hillary look so much better.” She then referenced a gala-like event that had happened that day in which Biden had attended and spoken.
But the only words she had for Biden’s appearance and comments were, “What a mess today.”
According to Fox News, the gala was “honoring former Vice President Walter Mondale in Washington, where Bide critiqued Clinton.”
Clinton had recently been interviewed and asked what enemy was she “most proud of” making throughout her career. Naturally, she couldn’t just name one. “Well, in addition to the NRA, the health insurance companies, and the drug companies, the Iranians; probably the Republicans.”
However, during Biden’s speech at the gala, he made it clear that Clinton should not be proud of such an enemy, even if he didn’t mention her by name.
He said, “It is possible, it is necessary to end this notion that the enemy is the other party. End this notion that it is naïve to think we can speak well of the other party and cooperation. What is naïve is to think it is remotely possible to govern this country unless we can. That is what is naïve.”
Fox noted that the rest of his speech was only a further insult to Clinton as he “portrayed his own leadership during the Obama administration as more critical to its successes than Clinton’s as former secretary of state.”
Hence, the “mess.”
Does Tanden still think of Biden as such? We don’t really know. Just as Harris was relatively mum on the retraction of her thoughts about Biden, Tanden seems to be as well.
But, of course, she’s willing to take the promotion. Besides, it’s not like she’ll be working for Biden anyway. We all know Harris will have all the control, just as she does already.