Journalist Matt Taibbi criticized President-elect Joe Biden’s picks for top administration posts, arguing the former vice president was choosing officials who are likely to back moderate policies instead of more progressive ones.
“They’re just trying to preempt any criticism of these picks by saying, ‘Do you have a problem with women? Do you have a problem with minorities?’” Taibbi said in a Hill.TV interview. “It’s a rehash of the same strategy that the Clinton Democrats have had for a while now, which is to try to disguise a lunge rightward or towards corporate donors by making themselves in the language of social progressivism.”
“They’re not going to reform themselves because they think it might lose voters,” Taibbi added. “They’d rather lose and stay in their cushy Washington lobby jobs than win by taking a new approach that would cut out the donors.”
Taibbi singled out Biden’s nomination of Neera Tanden to lead the Office of Management and Budget, arguing it sends a clear message that his administration isn’t interested in shifting toward social progressivism.
Tanden has also come under harsh criticism from the right, with some Senate Republicans indicating she will have a difficult if not impossible road to confirmation.
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