Neera Tanden, a senior Biden administration official, expressed outrage over what she called a “double standard” in the media’s response to the Trump campaign hack, following the widespread coverage of her own communications after the 2016 Clinton campaign hack.
Tanden, who heads the White House Domestic Policy Council, expressed frustration with the overall lack of coverage of the hacked Trump campaign documents given the attention given to the hacked documents released by WikiLeaks in 2016.
“Seriously, I can’t believe the double standard,” Tanden posted on X on Tuesday. “After all this fuss over the interview, it would be great if the people making these decisions were accountable to the American people. Are they admitting now that they were wrong in 2016? Or is the rule that hacked materials can only be used against Democrats? There’s no middle ground.”
Tanden said the New York Times used hacked emails released by WikiLeaks in a 2019 story but has not used any hacked materials from the Trump campaign more recently.
In a later post, Tanden denied that the WikiLeaks materials had received more widespread coverage because they were in the public domain.
“Did the manner of the hacking serve as a cover for a Russian psy-op? That’s not a justification. That’s a rationalization,” Tanden wrote.
Tanden has led the Domestic Policy Council since May 2023. She was initially nominated to lead the Office of Management and Budget but faced opposition in the Senate due in part to old social media posts.
The FBI confirmed it was opening an investigation after the Trump campaign said on Monday it had been hacked and some of its internal documents leaked. A Microsoft report on Friday blamed Iran for the hack but did not say at the time that the Trump campaign was the target.
As part of the hack, new media outlets were contacted by an individual who shared vetting materials for Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), Trump’s running mate.
The news media Almost refrained They prohibit the publication or widespread reporting of the hacked materials, a stark difference from 2016, when Russia hacked Democratic campaign emails and those emails were published by WikiLeaks.
The emails were widely reported, with particular focus on Tanden, who was an adviser to the Clinton campaign at the time. New York Times article The paper, from October 2016, focused specifically on Tanden’s emails, writing that the public release of her often vulgar private comments showed her to be “a loyal but persistent straight-talker and a keen observer of Clinton’s stubbornness and weaknesses.”
