Neera Tanden, President Biden’s embattled nominee to lead the Office of Management and Budget, met with Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski on Monday in an eleventh-hour attempt to save her nomination.
And Murkowski, one of the most centrist Republican senators who could save Tanden’s nomination from doom, did not rule out joining Democrats in voting to confirm Tanden.
“I’m still doing my assessment,” Murkowski told the congressional reporting pool on Monday. “I have some more follow-up questions.”
Concerns about Tanden’s corporate ties, plethora of harsh tweets about Republicans and some Democrats, and other objectionable items in her background have made her confirmation battle the most contentious among Biden’s slate of nominees.
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“We had a sit-down meeting, which was good. I haven’t had a sit-down meeting in quite a while, but she was in the building and asked if she could come in person. And so I said, ‘Sure, come on up,'” Murkowski said.
West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, one of the most centrist members of the Democratic caucus, announced last month he would vote against confirming Tanden, shattering the possibility of Democrats in the 50-50 divided Senate to confirm her without Republican support.
That prompted Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders of Vermont to postpone a panel vote on her nomination, even as the White House refused to rescind her nomination.
Support from another Republican would save Tanden’s nomination, pushing her back to 50 votes for confirmation, with Vice President Kamala Harris casting a tiebreaking vote.
Murkowski is the likest to do so after other sometimes-rank-breaking Senate Republicans, Susan Collins of Maine and Mitt Romney of Utah, said they intend to vote against confirming her.
The effort to court Murkowski appeared to be in motion last week, when she was spotted heading into Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s office for a meeting.
The relationship between Tanden and Murkowski got additional attention last week, when left-wing activists seized on a tweet that showed a Washington Post reporter asking Murkowski about a 2017 Tanden tweet that had come up in the news.
In the 2017 tweet, Tanden responded to a Murkowski statement in support of a corporate tax cut and said: “Sounds like you’re high on your own supply.”
After being shown the tweet, Murkowski said: “High on my own supply? That’s interesting. Should I ask her, ‘My own supply of what?’”
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Even with the support of Murkowski, though, Tanden’s nomination would not necessarily be out of the woods.
Centrist Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, who has frustrated the Left by opposing an end to the Senate filibuster, has not said whether she will vote to confirm Tanden.
