Tulsi Gabbard urges Senate to vote 'NO' on this Biden cabinet pick

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Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard is urging her fellow lawmakers in the Senate to block President-elect Joe Biden's pick for director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Neera Tanden. 

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"Neera Tanden's 'think tank' took millions from WallStreet, UAE, & defense contractors. She advocated taking Libya’s oil to pay for bombs we destroyed their country with. At OMB she’ll support more costly regime change wars & military industrial complex. Senators, I urge a NO vote," Gabbard said in a post on Twitter. 

Tanden, a former adviser to Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, has been the chief executive officer and president of the Center for American Progress since 2011.

Her opponents have pointed to the millions of dollars her think tank has taken from controversial donors such as the United Arab Emirates – a country known for its poor human rights record.

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Between 2014 and 2018, CAP received between $1.5 million and $3 million from the UAE, according to a report from Center for International Policy, a foreign policy research think tank. But early last year, the group said it was no longer accepting UAE’s money.

Tanden and Gabbard have had previous dust-ups, including in 2016 when they traded Twitter barbs about their disagreement about intervening in Syria. 

The two seemed to bury the hatchet earlier this year, after Tanden commended Gabbard, a former Democratic presidential hopefully, for endorsing Biden's ticket. 

But the Hawaii House member's most recent comments regarding Tanden threaten to derail Biden's pick, particularly with the balance of power in the Senate so close. 

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Tanden needs to garner 51 votes in the Senate to be confirmed to the OMB post, but Democrats are currently lagging behind Republicans 48-50. Democrats are hoping to pick up two seats in the Georgia runoffs come March, which would then throw any tiebreaker votes to Vice Presidential-elect Kamala Harris for a decision.