US: Republicans Leave No Stone Unturned To Suppress Biden-Harris' Nominees From Minority Communities

Republican lawmakers are leaving no stone unturned to suppress the Biden-Harris administration's nominees belonging to the minority groups. The 'White supremacists' are making it difficult for people of colour, people of South-America origins (famously known as Latino) and female pools of talent including Indian-American candidates.

Indian-Americans Neera Tanden, Vivek Murthy and Vanita Gupta along with some half-dozen nominees of Biden from minority groups are being baffled in the confirmation process that requires the approval of a majority of Senators in a chamber tied at 50-50.

Some other nominees whose confirmation is being hindered include the nominee for interior secretary Deb Haaland, a Native American, nominee for health and human services, Xavier Becerra, who is Latino, and Kristen Clarke, a Black lawyer nominated to lead the Civil Rights Division at the Justice Department, reported The Times of India.

The White supremacists have a very long history of denying confirmation to minority blacks which has been largely seen as a bipartisan process driven by unison, and with some very rare exceptions, range from their social media posts ("mean tweets" in the case of Tanden) to their "radical" record (in the case of Haaland).

Vanita Gupta, a highly respectful civil rights attorney who is Biden's pick to be associate attorney general at the Justice Department is the latest to be on the waitlist confirmation. Gupta served as an assistant attorney general for civil rights and head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, is now the target of a multimillion-dollar ad campaign from the right-wingers who have labelled her "dangerous". Her confirmation is being opposed by the right-wingers as they are unhappy with her previous prosecution of racist hate crimes and her efforts to reform police departments.

Meanwhile, the lawmakers are expected to hear the testimony of Vivek Murthy, Biden's nominee for US Surgeon General. The reason for opposing him is his advocacy of gun control measures and referring to uncontrolled gun violence in the US as a public health issue.

Liberal activists backing Neera Tanden are also pointing to reasons beyond her "malicious intent" on Twitter for conservative Democrat Joe Manchin's opposition to her nomination. Tanden was critical of Manchin's daughter, who is CEO of a pharma company that makes the emergency anti-allergy medication Epipen, for raising its price by 400%.

So far President Biden has not pulled back any of the halted nominations, as his attorneys are looking for one or two moderate Republican votes to carry the nominees through the deeply polarised Senate.

On Wednesday, Ron Klain, chief of White House staff said on MSNBC (news channel) that they were "fighting guts out" to get Neera Tanden confirmed and if she was not confirmed, she could be given a role that does not need Senate confirmation.

Also Read: Japanese Government Appoints "Minister Of Loneliness"