on Wednesday defended Neera Tanden, his nominee for director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, saying that Republicans opposed to her nomination were just trying "to pick a fight."
When asked by Opinion columnist Thomas Friedman whether "nasty tweets should be disqualifying in this day and age," Biden wasn't fazed by GOP criticism of Tanden's Twitter account,of President Donald Trump and Republican legislators over the years. "That disqualifies almost every Republican senator and 90 percent of the administration," Biden responded. "But by the way, she's smart as hell. Yeah, I think they're going to pick a couple of people just to fight [over] no matter what."
While Biden's foreign policy team included seasoned veterans like Secretary of State nominee Antony Blinken and US Ambassador to the United Nations Ambassador nominee Linda Thomas-Greenfield who, Tanden is expected to face a difficult Senate confirmation hearing. Tanden, CEO of the Center for American Progress, the liberal think tank, has been a fixture in Washington DC for years. She was a longtime aide to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, starting with her work in the White House during the presidency of Bill Clinton, and would be the first Indian-American woman to lead the White House budget office.