In both their Monday and Tuesday evening newscasts, the broadcast networks flashed just how they planned to protect the incoming Biden administration from all controversies that are sure to arise. One of their first tests was to defend far-left think tank operator Neera Tanden, who had been nominated to run the budget office. Avoiding her radical conspiracy theories about the 2016 election and her lack of ethics, the networks insisted Senate Republicans opposed her because of her tweets.
“But Tanden, who leads a liberal think tank and has skewered Republicans on Twitter, is already facing pushback,” announced ABC senior congressional correspondent and ardent Republican hater, Mary Bruce on Monday’s World News Tonight. “But Democrats blasted Republicans for complaining about mean tweets after four years of Donald Trump.”
After boasting about Tanden’s Indian heritage and her family’s use of “federally subsidized housing and food stamps” during Tuesday’s CBS Evening News, political correspondent Ed O’Keefe lamented that Tanden was “facing stiff Republican opposition for her sharp criticism of the GOP.”
NBC Nightly News managed to get a little closer to the truth Tuesday, but kept it at arm’s length. According to White House correspondent Peter Alexander, Tanden was “facing criticism from Republicans and some progressive Democrats for her outspoken views.”
What were those “outspoken views?” Alexander never disclosed those to NBC’s viewers, only giving them half of the story.
But unlike those trying to run cover for the Democrats, the Fox News Channel’s Special Report pointed out some of what Tanden had been caught saying and doing which drew oppositions from both sides, as reported by correspondent Mark Meredith:
Tanden has faced controversies before. She criticized Biden as a potential candidate in 2015 and private emails leaked by WikiLeaks. In 2017, days before President Trump's inauguration, Tanden responded to Trump tweet alleging Russia hacked voting machines, quote, "Russians did enough damage to affect more than 70,000 votes in three states.” In 2018, BuzzFeed reported she faced criticism over how she handled sexual harassment claims within the organization she led.
And in an appearance on FNC’s Tucker Carlson Tonight Monday, The Intercept co-founder Glenn Greenwald unloaded on Tanden for her “deranged” behavior. After explaining how Tanden had zero qualifications to run the budget office, Greenwald recalled how Biden’s pick had breached ethical norms and exposed a sexual harassment accuser to her entire organization:
When she was running an all-staff meeting about three years ago, a woman who works at the think tank had filed a confidential complaint about sexual harassment against one of Neera Tanden's male allies. And this is something that would have ruined anybody else's career in Washington -- she outed this woman at the all-staff meeting out of vengeance.
Greenwald was adamant that Tanden was a “deranged and dangerous person;” citing how she had allegedly physically assaulted one of her organization’s reporters because he asked Hillary Clinton about the Iraq War.
On top of that, he pointed out how she had pushed the crazy conspiracy theory that Russia had hacked voting machines and changed the numbers around (click “expand”):
But here's the worst thing about her, Tucker, that video you showed had her talking about Russia collusion. She didn't just push the most maximized version of Russia collusion, she pushed this conspiracy theory that is completely reckless and wild; that Russia hacked into the voting machines and the reason Hillary lost in 2016 is because the Russians changed Hillary's votes to Trump's votes, and that's the real reason Hillary lost.
That is a conspiracy theory that in 2018 two-thirds of Democrats believed. How can you have somebody in a position like this who is this deranged behaviorally and in terms of the conspiracy theories they contaminate peoples’ brains with?
Ironically, the networks spent part of their Tuesday evening newscasts bashing President Trump for making similar suggestions for 2020.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
Fox News Channel’s Tucker Carlson Tonight
November 30, 2020
8:57:06 p.m.(…)
GLENN GREENWALD: Well, first of all, that package that you just did as critical as it was of her, was incredibly generous. She's so much worse than that.
TUCKER CARLSON: [Laughter]
GREENWALD: Why Neera Tanden? She’s totally unqualified for this position. Like she’s not economist, she went to law school, she worked for Hillary Clinton, and then all she's done in the think tank for the last ten years is raise millions of dollars from Silicon Valley, Wall Street, despots in the gulf states, which is the real base of the Democratic Party. So, they want her to see the regulatory budget and economic policy and the administration on behalf of their real constituencies, which is all the people for whom she’s been raising millions of dollars.
But the thing is Tucker, that just makes her an ordinary Democrat. She’s just a swamp creature in that regard. She’s a deranged and dangerous person. I don't mean just politically. I mean like, behaviorally.
When she was working to get Hillary Clinton elected, one of her own reporters at this think tank was arranged to have an interview Hillary and asked Hillary about the Iraq War. And Neera Tanden was so angry she punched him. And then later, she claimed she merely pushed him.
When she was running an all-staff meeting about three years ago, a woman who works at the think tank had filed a confidential complaint about sexual harassment against one of Neera Tanden's male allies. And this is something that would have ruined anybody else's career in Washington -- she outed this woman at the all-staff meeting out of vengeance.
She, when the Obama administration was bombing Libya into oblivion, she suggested internally that the way we should reduce our deficit as a nation is to use Libya's oil to make them pay us back for the favor of having destroyed their entire government.
But here's the worst thing about her, Tucker, that video you showed had her talking about Russia collusion. She didn't just push the most maximized version of Russia collusion, she pushed this conspiracy theory that is completely reckless and wild; that Russia hacked into the voting machines and the reason Hillary lost in 2016 is because the Russians changed Hillary's votes to Trump's votes, and that's the real reason Hillary lost.
That is a conspiracy theory that in 2018 two-thirds of Democrats believed. How can you have somebody in a position like this who is this deranged behaviorally and in terms of the conspiracy theories they contaminate peoples’ brains with?
Fox News Channel’s Special Report
December 1, 2020
6:14:19 p.m. Eastern(…)
MARK MEREDITH: But some Democrats are outraged with the President-Elect's pick. Bernie Sanders’ former campaign press secretary tweeting, quote, "Everything toxic about the corporate Democratic Party is embodied in Neera Tanden.”
Tanden has faced controversies before. She criticized Biden as a potential candidate in 2015 and private emails leaked by WikiLeaks. In 2017, days before President Trump's inauguration, Tanden responded to Trump tweet alleging Russia hacked voting machines, quote, "Russians did enough damage to affect more than 70,000 votes in three states.” In 2018, BuzzFeed reported she faced criticism over how she handled sexual harassment claims within the organization she led.
But despite the growing list of potential scandals, the President-Elect says he stands by his pick.
