Neera Tanden

Tanden has been regarded as a Clinton loyalist[9] and personal friend of Hillary Clinton.[10] She worked with President Bill Clinton's campaign on new energy policies, and health-care reform, as associate director for domestic policy in the Clinton White House,[11][12] and as a domestic policy advisor in the First Lady's Office.[13]

In 1999 and 2000, Tanden was deputy campaign manager and policy director for Hillary Clinton during her successful senatorial campaign in New York.[14][15] After the election, Tanden served as Senator Clinton's legislative director from 2003 to 2005.[11][4]

Tanden was Hillary Clinton's policy director for Clinton's unsuccessful bid for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination.[6][16] The New York Times reported that Tanden punched ThinkProgress website editor and future Bernie Sanders 2020 presidential campaign manager Faiz Shakir for asking Clinton about her Iraq War vote, which was unpopular among many Democratic voters.[9]

Tanden was an unpaid adviser to Clinton's successful 2016 primary season nomination campaign and unsuccessful general election campaign in opposition to Republican candidate Donald Trump, while also running the Center for American Progress. After Hillary Clinton secured the Democratic nomination for president in 2016, Tanden was named to her transition team.[17] Tanden was considered a candidate for a top White House job, had Clinton won the presidency.[9]

After Barack Obama was nominated as the Democratic presidential candidate, Tanden was one of the first, and also one of the few, former Clinton campaign staffers to join his team.[18] She was domestic policy director for his successful general election campaign.[16][19]

Tanden served in the Obama administration as senior adviser to Secretary Kathleen Sebelius of the Department of Health and Human Services. She helped to draft the administration's health care legislation, including work specific to its proposed, but later withdrawn, public option.[20][21][22][23] She also negotiated with Congress and stakeholders on several provisions of the bill.[18] She has been described as one of the "key architects" of the Affordable Care Act.[24]

Tanden with John Podesta (left) and Governor Martin O'Malley (right)

In 2003, Tanden had a central role in the founding of the Center for American Progress (CAP).[25] Tanden worked as Senior Vice President for Domestic Policy, while also serving as Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and, starting in 2010, as Chief Operating Officer.[11]

In October 2011, Tanden succeeded John Podesta as CAP's president and CEO.[26]

In 2016, a hacker obtained access to Podesta's private emails, which included exchanges with Tanden. In one exchange, on August 11, 2015, while discussing news that Harvard University law professor Lawrence Lessig was exploring a bid for the Democratic nomination, Tanden wrote of Lessig, "I fucking hate that guy." Lessig responded to the incident by saying that while he supported whistle blowing and a pardon of Edward Snowden, Tanden should not have to be burdened with having her private emails scrutinized and that it was not in the public interest.[27] Tanden called the release of her personal communications, which often feature her blunt private assessments, a painful experience to endure.[28]

After the 2016 election and Clinton's loss, Tanden refocused the work of the Center for American Progress, aiming to have the think tank, and especially its advocacy arm (the Center for American Progress Action Fund), serve as a "central hub for Trump resistance"[29] as well as playing a leading role in shaping the healthcare debate within the Democratic Party.[30]

In 2018, reports emerged that Tanden had revealed the first name of a CAP employee complaining of sexual harassment.[31]

On April 28, 2020, Tanden was named to New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy's Restart and Recovery Commission. The Commission was tasked with preparing the state to reopen after its COVID-19 lockdown.[32]

Much of Tanden's work relates to healthcare policy in America. She worked on the passage of the Affordable Care Act during the Obama administration.[25] Tanden supports a multi-payer universal healthcare system,[38][39] but opposes single-payer healthcare, including Medicare for All proposals.[40][41]

Tanden has been a critic of the policy proposals and supporters of U.S. Senator and former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.[42] During the 2016 Democratic Party presidential primaries, she opposed Sanders's signature proposals of a $15 per hour minimum wage and single-payer healthcare.[43][44]

Before the U.S.–NATO bombing of Libya, Tanden tweeted her support for Gaddafi's removal.[45]

In October 2011, Tanden suggested (in a private email made public by WikiLeaks) that it "doesn't seem crazy" to her that Libya should "partially pay [the USA] back" with oil for US intervention.[46] Glenn Greenwald noted the similarity to what Donald Trump said about Iraq oil ("I say we should take it and pay ourselves back.")[47]

In September 2013, when President Obama was considering bombing Syria, Tanden tweeted: "On Syria, while I don't want to be the world's policeman, an unpoliced world is dangerous. The U.S. may be the only adult in the room left." Tanden said she opposed deploying U.S. soldiers to Syria.[45]

In 2015, when Israeli Prime Minister campaigned against the Obama administration's Iran nuclear deal, Tanden, as President of the Center for American Progress, invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speak in Washington D.C.[45]