The New Zealand Herall: Biden faces his first political defeat after taking office
The President of the United States of America, Joe Biden, faces his first political defeat since taking office on January 20, according to the New Zealand Herald.
The newspaper said that the defeat that Biden faces is the rejection of the proposal to appoint some ministers in his government and the possibility of them being rejected by the US Congress represented in his other room in the Senate.
According to the American political system, the president chooses his candidate for ministerial positions, and then the Senate votes on whether to approve them or not.
All Biden needs is for the senators to agree and have Vice President Kamala Harris tipped as the Senate president, and her vote is a weighted factor, but things may not go as Biden wants, with the simple majority swinging in the current Senate, divided 50/50.
Longtime Democratic Party activist Biden Nera Tandin has been nominated to serve as head of administration and budget, where Tandin is currently president of the Center for American Progress, a left-wing think tank.
She also has a history of making party statements, especially online, against the many senators her votes are now seeking.
For example, Tandin previously referred to the moderate Republican Susan Collins as "the worst," and accused Senate leader Mitch McConnell of leniently with Russia, calling him "the Moscow Mitch."
She also criticized Bernie Sanders, who is technically independent but is present in most caucuses with Democrats.
"Your attacks were not just against Republicans," Sanders noted during one of Tandin's Senate hearings earlier this month.
Tandin told Sanders that she felt "bad" about her previous statements and would take a "radically different" approach if approved within Biden's cabinet.
But it seems that Tandin cannot escape her old words.
Some senators made it clear from the moment Tandin was nominated that they would not support her.
Republican Kevin Kramer said, "She is not just a liberal ideology. She is a partisan activist who goes after Senators from the majority party. It seems that she chose a path that does not lead to approval in the Senate."
His colleague John Cornyn said: "I think, in light of her hostile and insulting comments about many of the Senators, and especially on our part, that this certainly creates a problematic path."
Then Democrat Joe Mansheen announced on Friday that he would vote against Tandin.
“I have carefully reviewed Nira Tandin's public statements and tweets directed personally to my colleagues, from Senator Sanders to Senator McConnell and others,” Manchine said.
"I think her public partisan statements will have a toxic and harmful effect on the important working relationship between members of Congress and the next director of the Office of Management and Budget, for this reason, I cannot support her candidacy," he added.
