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Entertainment

‘Christmas Carol’ adaptations glamorize the ‘cruel corporate czar,’ argues NBC News critic

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NBC News culture critic Ani Bundel called out movies like “Spirited” and “Scrooge: A Christmas Carol” for glamorizing the “cruel corporate czar” on Saturday. 

“Spirited” and “Scrooge: A Christmas Carol” are musical adaptations of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.” Bundel wrote that both adaptations “hit the wrong key.” 

“But both renditions’ insistence on preaching this secular myth of the billionaire turned benefactor at a time when the news is full of stories to the contrary means both musical adaptations hit the wrong key,” she wrote. 

Bundel suggests in her critique of the movies that neither version wants to admit the “cruel corporate czar” or Scrooge-like character is a “bad person.”

Cast members Octavia Spencer and Will Ferrell attend the premiere of the movie ‘Spirited’ in London, Britain November 15, 2022. REUTERS/Maja Smiejkowska
(REUTERS/Maja Smiejkowska)

‘A CHRISTMAS STORY’ HOUSE IN OHIO LISTED FOR SALE JUST IN TIME FOR CHRISTMAS: ‘DEFINETELY EXCITING’

“In a year when it seems nearly every monopolistic company is laying off workers, the cathartic comeuppance of a hard-hearted billionaire makes cultural sense. But neither film is willing to even admit its cruel corporate czar is a bad person, as if the producers fear insulting the rich men who run their respective streaming services,” the NBC News critic wrote. 

Will Ferrell, Ryan Reynolds, Octavia Spencer and more star in “Spirited” on Apple TV+. Ferrell plays the ghost of Christmas present and Reynolds stars as Clint Briggs, a reimagined Ebenezer Scrooge.

NBC’s Bundel also argued that the entertainment industry’s failure to recognize a “societal shift” was “more troubling.”

“The entertainment world’s refusal to notice a societal shift is more troubling. Dickens’ story is timeless for a reason, and there should be space right now to make a version that speaks to the current moment. Too bad neither of these knows how,” Bundel continued.

A sign is pictured outside NBC headquarters at Rockefeller Center in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., January 16, 2020. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri
(REUTERS/Carlo Allegri)

NBC SILENT AFTER RETRACTING PAUL PELOSI REPORT UNDER MYSTERIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES

Spencer opened up about preparing for the musical in November. 

“I had no idea what it takes to do a musical, because here is the thing, we all sing every day,” she said. “I don’t consider myself a singer, but I thought I could probably do it, because when you’re singing with the radio, you sound so good right? You hit the notes, but you realize that you’re singing very low. They were going to have a microphone, so I thought I could use my little radio singing voice… and the voice coach Eric Vetro was like, ‘Yeah, I’m going to need you to sing out — project!'”

After working with Reynolds on “Free Guy” and “The Adam Project,” Shawn Levy will direct “Deadpool 3.”
( Gilbert Carrasquillo/GC Images)

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Reynolds said earlier this year that he and the cast went to a seven-week theater camp to prepare for the musical. 

Hanna Panreck is an associate editor at Fox News.

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Health

Right Wingers Attack Biden Monkeypox Czar Demetre Daskalakis

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Demetre Daskalakis at a White House monkeypox press briefing on September 7.
Image: Kevin Dietsch (Getty Images)

Monkeypox is currently spreading across the country (and the world at large), with over 21,000 cases reported in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as of August 22. After a faltering initial response, the White House has taken a more aggressive approach in its response and outreach regarding the outbreak, which included the Aug. 2 appointment of a new Monkeypox Response Deputy Coordinator: Demetre Daskalakis. Daskalakis has a long resume of high-level public health experience—he served as covid incident commander for New York City and led the CDC’s HIV prevention division—but he also happens to be everything conservatives hate: hot, gay, and often shirtless.

Noted idiot and serial plagiarist Benny Johnson tweeted Thursday, “Meet Demetre Daskalakis. Demetre was just appointed by Joe Biden to be the official White House National Monkeypox Response Deputy Coordinator. Demetre proudly wears the official symbol of the Church of Satan: The Pentagram. Joe Biden appointed a Satanist to the White House.” Johnson’s use of “just” is doing a lot of work, as Daskalakis’ appointment occurred a month ago. Keep up, Benny. “I am certainly not a satanist,” Daskalakis tells The Advocate. And why do people think he is? “It’s because I wear high-fashion harnesses by Zana Bayne,” he cheekily replies.

Daily Caller writer Dylan Housman wrote, “Meet Joe Biden’s monkeypox czar: a ‘progressive, radical gay’ doctor who performs HIV screenings in sex clubs and gives meningitis shots in drag. Now he’s in the White House.” Housman wrote an entire story about Daskalakis’ “suggestive clothing” and “dozens, if not hundreds, of shirtless photos showcasing the doctor’s physique.”

Right-wingers like Johnson and Housman are having a field day with Daskalakis’ Instagram, with a lot of emphasis on the fact that Daskalakis has worn shirts and leather harnesses with designs that resemble pentagrams, which in turn confirms their beliefs that President Biden’s administration is home to Satanists (the post hoc propter hoc fallacy). While the good doctor may sometimes sport a menacing leather star, he balances the unholy vibes out with a massive tattoo of Jesus on his stomach, among several other pieces of ink.

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Disparaging comments have flooded Daskalakis’ Instagram since the harassment against him began this week, and he has taken his profile private. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

What’s completely unsurprising is how the conservative response to Daskalakis’ appointment involves criticism about his expression of sexuality, with little to say about how qualified he may be for this public health position—he has degrees from Columbia and Harvard, experience as a director of Mount Sinai Health System, and a long stint with the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Before joining the White House, he was known to have a unique approach to public health, specifically in his quest to cater to the LGBTQ+ community. A profile in the Atlantic in 2014 quotes Daskalakis as the “gay health warrior” who gave HIV and Hepatitis C screenings at a Manhattan S&M club called Paddles as patrons partied the night away. Similarly, NBC News previously reported that Daskalakis would dress in drag as a nurse to give meningitis vaccines at sex clubs.

While the right-wing rage against Daskalakis appears to be drowning out his infectious disease experience and creative approach to public health, many were quick to come to his defense.

After conservative radio personality Tim Young wrote of Daskalakis’ appointment, “I’m not making this up,” David Holland, a professor of infectious diseases at Emory University, responded, “No, you’re not. He’s a brilliant scientist, tireless public servant, and has always worked right on the front lines, including this amazing ad campaign. My friend and my hero. Don’t be jealous because he also looks better than you with his shirt off.”



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Biden ‘disinfo’ czar Nina Jankowicz ripped over TikTok

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The controversial head of President Biden’s new Big Brother-like disinformation board drew fresh mockery and disdain Friday over cringeworthy TikTok footage of her adaptation of a Mary Poppins song to be about misinformation.

Nina Jankowicz’s newly resurfaced take on the “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” tune was being shared widely online Friday after it emerged she has her own history of spreading disinformation online.

“Information laundering is really quite ferocious. It’s when a huckster takes some lies and makes them sound precocious, by saying them in Congress or a mainstream outlet, so disinformation’s origins are slightly less atrocious,” Jankowicz sang in her Feb. 2021 TikTok video.

“When Rudy Giuliani shared bad intel from Ukraine. Or when TikTok influencers say COVID can’t cause pain. They’re laundering disinfo and we really should take note. And not support their lies with our wallet, voice or vote,” she continued.

An unearthed TikTok video showed the Biden administration’s new Disinformation Governance Board executive director singing a revised version of Mary Poppins’ “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” tailored around “information laundering.”
TikTok
Jankowicz is being slammed online for the cringeworthy take.
TikTok
Jankowicz’s appointment to the disinformation board was slammed by conservatives.
TikTok

When Jankowicz — a disinformation expert with a history of casting doubt on the Hunter Biden laptop from hell — posted the footage, she wrote: “You can just call me the Mary Poppins of disinformation.”

The bizarre rendition reemerged after Jankowicz revealed Wednesday she’d been named executive director of the Department of Homeland Security’s Orwellian new “Disinformation Governance Board.”

“This is Biden’s Minister of Truth…,” Senator Ted Cruz tweeted Friday alongside the footage.

OutKick founder Clay Travis added: “This is the new Biden administration head of Ministry of Truth, Nina Jankowicz. She is in charge of what’s truth and fiction in America. Every time you think the Biden administration can’t get more ridiculous.” 

Jankowicz is the head of President Biden’s new Big Brother-like disinformation board.
Twitter

“This one absolutely has to go into the 2022 Time Capsule. #MinistryOfTruth,” Hollywood actor James Woods tweeted.

Rudy Giuliani also weighed in slamming her as the “whack a doodle Biden put in charge of the Ministry of Truth.”

And author and Post columnist David Marcus tweeted: “I’d like to apologize for this on behalf of all theater people.” 

The White House addressed the video in its Friday briefing.
Fox News

Conservatives were quick to slam Jankowicz’s appointment to the disinformation board — pointing to her history of repeatedly casting doubt on The Post’s reporting of Hunter Biden’s laptop.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said the Biden administration’s decision to name her executive director was “not acceptable” and Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson earlier called her a “beacon of misinformation.”



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Jeff Zients to Leave as Biden’s Covid Czar and Be Replaced by Ashish Jha

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When transportation became a barrier to vaccination, Mr. Zients persuaded the chief executives of Uber and Lyft to offer free rides, said Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, who advised the White House on racial equity issues. When lack of child care and vacation leave became obstacles, he persuaded day care centers to offer free care and companies to offer free time off.

“I could call him any time of the day or night and say, ‘This is a problem, we’ve got to solve for this,’” she said. “Jeff’s job all day was solving for this.”

Critics have said Mr. Zients, who made a fortune building two consultancies and taking them public, was an odd pick to run the pandemic response given his lack of experience in public health. But his past work touched on health care, both as the chief executive of the Advisory Board Company, a health care consultancy, and in the Obama administration, where he ran the effort to fix the healthcare.gov website.

During the surge of cases — and deaths — this winter, some blamed Mr. Zients for failing to do enough to prevent them, particularly when the highly transmissible Omicron variant caught the administration unprepared. Some supporters of Mr. Biden — particularly those on the Democratic left — were openly disdainful of both Mr. Zients and Mr. Klain.

“We wanted this to be run as a scientific operation; it’s being run as a management consultancy,” Gregg Gonsalves, a longtime AIDS activist and epidemiologist at Yale University, said in an interview in January. “Ron Klain and Jeff Zients are the wrong people to be where the buck stops on this.”

In January, The American Prospect, a liberal website, published an article titled “Fire Jeff Zients” that said he had “proven himself not up to the task, and Biden should relieve him of his duties.”

Mr. Zients was not always able to see around corners. In June, he declared that the nation was “entering a summer of joy, a summer of freedom,” not long after the Delta variant hammered India, and as it hit Britain. When it took hold in the United States over the summer, cases and deaths skyrocketed.

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Biden administration drug czar says it’s time to treat drug addiction like a chronic disease

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The announcement is part of the Biden administration’s strategy to focus on harm reduction efforts, a priority announced in the spring. This administration is the first to so openly embrace this approach. But it comes as the country’s overdose crisis has already become dire.
Between April 2020 and May 2021, more than 100,000 people in the United States died from drug overdoses — the highest number ever recorded in a 12-month period.

“That’s the equivalent of an American dying every five minutes,” Dr. Rahul Gupta, director of the White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy told CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta in an exclusive broadcast interview. The two doctors are not related.

“We have a number. And we have to look at this as an unacceptable number. It’s unprecedented. And we must have a response that matches that historic number,” Dr. Rahul Gupta said.

Fentanyl is the biggest driver of drug overdoses; it’s 50 times more powerful than heroin and is extremely cheap to produce. It’s used as a cutting agent that can stretch a supply of heroin or juice up fake prescription pills. The most recent data find nearly 70% of all overdose deaths involve synthetic opioids such as fentanyl.

“What that means is that a good majority of these (overdoses) are preventable in nature,” Gupta said.

Like his predecessors, Gupta has made a visit to the border to better understand how to stop the trafficking of fentanyl into the US.

“A lot of the fentanyl now, it’s easily transportable, it’s deadly in nature. And it’s across in all communities. And that’s what becomes the challenge,” he said.

But he also emphasized that it’s not just a matter of law enforcement: “This problem doesn’t start or end at the border,” he said. “It ends, unfortunately, in the emergency room.”

Gupta was previously the West Virginia health commissioner and state health officer. As the first physician to fill the position of drug czar, Gupta says it’s important to look at harm reduction: the idea of preventing overdoses by making drug use safer instead of focusing on abstinence alone.

Gupta said the Biden administration is prioritizing efforts including expanding the use of the opioid reversal drug naloxone, establishing syringe exchanges, and increasing the use of fentanyl test strips to test for the presence of the deadly drug.

But harm reduction has had a history mired in controversy, with critics saying it could potentially encourage drug use.

“As an evidence-based physician that has spent his career dealing with science and moving data around, we just do not have that evidence,” said Gupta.

Gupta said the approach to reducing overdoses has to ignore politics.

“When somebody’s suffering from substance use disorder or going through an overdose, whether fatal or nonfatal, they’re not Republicans, they’re not Democrats. They’re not living in red states or blue states, or rich or poor, or black or white … they’re human beings that we need to help support.”

And that support means approaching addiction and substance use not as a moral decision, but as a chronic relapsing brain disease.

“It’s no different than many of the other chronic diseases in so many aspects like diabetes and hypertension,” said the drug czar.

In addition to expanding funding for harm reduction efforts, the Biden administration also announced on Wednesday a framework for states to create syringe exchange-friendly laws. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, people who use syringe exchanges are five times more likely to enter drug treatment and three times more likely to stop using drugs than those who don’t use the programs.
Advocates for harm reduction say these efforts work. Studies have found that people who check and test their drugs using fentanyl test strips are more likely to modify their drug use by using less, using slower, or making sure naloxone is available.

It’s a shift in how the country has long approached drug use, Gupta said.

“If you’re looking to save lives and you’ve reached a historic unprecedented level of deaths, then you cannot avoid looking at any and every option in order to save those lives,” he said.

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Health

White House COVID-19 czar urges businesses require employees to be vaccinated

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The White House COVID-19 response team on Tuesday urged businesses in the country to require employees to be vaccinated.

COVID-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients presented a White House briefing alongside the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Dr. Rochelle Walensky and the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and White House chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci.

“Bottom line, vaccination requirements work,” Zients said. “They drive up vaccination rates and we need more businesses and other employers, including health care systems, school districts, colleges and universities, to step up and do their part to help end the pandemic faster. We need more individuals to step up to.”

He continued: “We continue to push for more vaccination process, including through vaccination requirements. The president first adopted vaccination requirements for federal workers last month and now over 800 colleges and universities, 200 health care employers, small and large businesses across the country and dozens of state and local governments and schools districts have stepped up to follow the president’s lead. Tens of millions of Americans are now covered by vaccination requirements.”

CDC PANEL RECOMMENDS PFIZER/BIONTECH COVID-19 VACCINE FOR ANYONE 16 AND OLDER UNDER FULL FDA APPROVAL

Zients opened the briefing by sending condolences to the southern states in America as residents in those states continue to battle hardship brought about by Hurricane Ida, noting that personnel sent to those states to assist with COVID-19 response efforts are “providing emergency medical care.”

“As part of our surge response effort, over 350 EMTs, doctors, nurses, health care workers and other personnel have been providing emergency medical care on the ground in the Gulf states of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama,” Zients said. 

“As we respond to surges, we remain laser-focused on getting more shots in arms, and we continue to build momentum,” Zients continued. “Back in July, we were averaging 500,000 vaccinations per day. Today, we’re averaging 900,000. That’s an 80% increase in the number of shots we’re getting into arms each and every day. Last week we got over 6 million shots, the biggest weekly total since July 5.”

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Before encouraging businesses to “step up and do their part,” Zients touted the increase in the “number of job postings that require vaccinations” and insisted that vaccine “requirements” put forth by businesses and colleges are “already working to get more people vaccinated.”

The COVID-19 vaccine is a requirement for all federal employees in the United States, including the White House, CDC and FDA. Those who have not been vaccinated must undergo regular testing for coronavirus, wear face masks, and practice social distancing measures.

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‘Something has to change’: GOP Sen. Graham and Democratic Rep. Cuellar urge Biden to tap Jeh Johnson or someone similar for border czar – The Washington Post

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  1. ‘Something has to change’: GOP Sen. Graham and Democratic Rep. Cuellar urge Biden to tap Jeh Johnson or someone similar for border czar The Washington Post
  2. Gov. Kristi Noem: Border Patrol is ‘overwhelmed,’ immigration crisis will get ‘much, much worse’ Fox News
  3. Surge in migrants overwhelming Border Patrol agents at U.S.-Mexico border KENS 5: Your San Antonio News Source
  4. Biden hypocrisy endangers American lives on southern border Washington Examiner
  5. OPINION: With COVID-Positive Illegal Immigrants Flooding Across The Border, Don’t Fall For Biden’s Tricks The Daily Wire
  6. View Full Coverage on Google News

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Health

Coronavirus in Israel: I don’t expect another wave says corona czar

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Israel is not going to experience another wave, Coronavirus Commissioner Prof. Nachman Ash said Sunday, as the number of cases dropped below 350, the lowest level since November.

“I’m glad to see a decline in all indices,” Ash said in a press briefing. “I want to remind everyone that we have not yet reached the low numbers that we registered between the second and third waves, so there is still a long way to go. However, the encouraging detail is that the decrease is happening despite a wide opening of the economy, which occurred about two weeks ago as the third stage of the exit strategy from the lockdown began.”

Some 337 new cases of the novel coronavirus were identified on Saturday, with only 1.8% of tests returning positive, the Health Ministry reported.

While the number of tests administered on Saturdays is consistently lower than on weekdays, the decrease remains meaningful as on the previous Saturday some 783 fewer cases were reported, and on the previous one to that, some 1,878 cases were seen. The last time Israel registered such a low number of cases was, once again, on a Saturday, but in November.

The R rate, or reproduction rate, also continued to decrease, standing at 0.62. The figure reflects how many people each coronavirus carrier infects on average. When the number is lower than 0.8 the disease is considered to be receding. Experts have been closely monitoring the rate, to see how lifting restrictions have impacted the ability of the disease to infect. While the vast majority of activities have resumed for at least two weeks, the R rate is steadily declining.

In addition, only four people succumbed to the virus on Saturday, the lowest daily toll in months. Some 6,085 have succumbed to the virus since the beginning of the pandemic.

Of those currently infected, 548 were in serious condition and 211 were on ventilators. The numbers were in line with those of previous days.

Meanwhile, over 4.5 million Israelis have been fully vaccinated with both doses of the coronavirus vaccination, while 5.1 million people have been inoculated with at least the first dose of the vaccination.

According to Ash, only two scenarios could allow a new wave to sweep through the country: 1) an outbreak among children and adults who are not vaccinated, which could be caused by a general relaxation on the observance of the rules, and 2) the development of a variant resistant to the vaccine.

“We currently do not know of such a mutation, and we are taking all measures to reduce the entry of mutations into Israel,” Ash pointed out. “The bottom line is that I am not anticipating another wave of disease and I very much hope that it does not happen.”

Starting from Sunday, most of the restrictions limiting the ability of Israelis to travel were canceled, following a ruling by the Supreme Court on the issue last week.

Ash emphasized that the authorities are, nonetheless, doing everything possible to avoid the spread of new variants by requiring from all those who enter Israel a negative coronavirus test and by stepping up the efforts to enforce the mandatory quarantine, which is obligatory for all returnees who are not fully vaccinated or recovered.

Asked what he expects to happen with inbound tourism from other countries, he said that he believes that the entrance of visitors is going to be based on specific agreements regarding the mutual recognition of vaccination and recovery certificates.

“We know that there are ongoing negotiations with different countries, and these agreements should be based on the fact that we know that whoever comes here is vaccinated or recovered and that we recognize their certificates,” he emphasized. “I still believe that this summer there will not be a lot of tourists here.”

The coronavirus commissioner explained that Israel is standing before some challenging weeks and that it is going to important to continue monitoring the infection rate and other details.

“[The decrease in numbers] has allowed us to enter a fourth stage of openings, mainly by increasing the number of attendees at cultural and sports events, opening outdoor attractions like swimming pools, changes in the education system to expand in-person learning,” he explained. “In the upcoming period, we will follow the morbidity rate and see where we are headed, also considering that the next two weeks are going to be challenging because of Election Day and Passover, and we are also approaching the holidays of April and Ramadan.”Ash also revealed that Clalit, Israel’s largest health care provider, is carrying out a study on whether people who are fully vaccinated have the ability to infect other people.

In the meantime, social distancing rules, as well as the requirement of wearing a mask, are not going to be abandoned.

“We do not want to confuse [the public] with more complex guidelines now. We have a few more weeks to see what happens in terms of the continued decline in morbidity,” he said.



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Biden eyes Gene Sperling to serve as Covid rescue plan czar

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White House press secretary Jen Psaki noted on Wednesday that Biden himself held a similar role as “point person” on the Obama administration’s implementation of the 2009 stimulus.

Sperling declined to comment. The White House also declined to comment.

Sperling, who currently lives in Los Angeles with his family, would bring a wealth of experience on economic policy issues to the stimulus czar position. He served as head of the National Economic Council under both Clinton and Obama as well as a top adviser at the Treasury Department under Obama.

Sperling found himself at odds with progressives in recent years for his role in negotiations on various deficit reduction efforts. But he has moved further left in recent years, advocating for massively expanded spending to fight Covid and assist an economy that remains around 11 million jobs short of the number that would have existed without the pandemic. When former Obama Treasury Secretary Larry Summers penned an op-ed questioning whether the latest stimulus was too large, Sperling was quick to respond that he believed it was not.

A fixture in the Washington policy wonk set for decades — famous for shambling around to meetings with a phone tucked behind his ear and piles of papers in his hands — Sperling has deep relationships across Capitol Hill. He had been looking for a significant role in the Biden administration. And the White House had indicated to lawmakers that it wanted him in the top slot at OMB.

But the idea of Sperling as a Tanden fallback received major pushback from the Hill, according to multiple sources involved or aware of the discussions.

Instead, Shalanda Young is increasingly likely to be Biden’s final pick to lead OMB, according to four sources familiar with White House discussions. Young, who is currently Biden’s nominee to be deputy budget director, is a longtime congressional budget aide and has received the backing of the Congressional Black Caucus, the top three Democratic leaders in the House, members of the Hispanic Caucus, and some Republicans.

Some House members indicated to the administration that it would not look good to bypass Young, a Black woman, and name a white man to replace Tanden, who would have been the first Indian American to hold the position.

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and Senate Budget Committee both advanced Young’s nomination to be the deputy director of OMB on Wednesday, sending her nomination to the floor for a final confirmation vote. Psaki had previously said Young would likely be tapped to serve as acting director once confirmed and as Biden settled on a new nominee.

After Tanden’s name was withdrawn from consideration, members of the Congressional Black Caucus launched an aggressive pressure campaign to convince Biden to put Young in the top spot. Though he said he was not aware of the administration’s plans, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) said Biden “certainly cannot make a mistake” in naming Young because “she is brilliant.”

One House Democrat who requested to speak on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive conversations said if the White House didn’t choose Young, it would be “an affront” to the Congressional Black Caucus and to leadership in the House.

Multiple Democratic members who spoke to POLITICO in the past week said they viewed Young as an inevitable choice and said that nominating her to the role would represent a commitment by the White House to Black Caucus members, who have repeatedly made clear that Black voters were instrumental to his victory in November.

“When I think of opportunities to make sure that we’re talking about diversity here is another one of those chances — Shalanda would be the first woman of color to serve in that position,” Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) said in an interview on Wednesday. “So it’s a chance to again break another ceiling. And I think that when you have chances of breaking ceilings, you do it.”

Chris Cadelago and Natasha Korecki contributed to this report.

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