Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) complained Monday that Vice President Kamala Harris was a “DEI hire” and lamented how “white females” weren’t considered for her role—the latest instance of racially coded right-wing attacks on President Joe Biden’s chosen successor.
When interviewed by CNN Capitol Hill correspondent Manu Raju, Burchett faulted Biden for pledging in early 2020 to pick a woman as his running mate. Biden, after racial unrest became a prominent election issue later in the campaign season, ended up choosing between four Black women.
“Biden said, first off, he said he’s going to hire a Black female for vice president and… he just skipped over—what about, what about white females? What about any other group?” Burchett griped. “When you go down that route, you take mediocrity, and that’s what they have right now as a vice president.”
When Raju followed up by asking if Burchett thought Harris, whose mother was Indian and her father from Jamaica, was a “DEI hire,” he emphatically agreed.
“100 percent. She was a DEI hire,” Burchett said. “Her record is abysmal at best.”
While DEI stands for “diversity, equity and inclusion” initiatives, it has been used as a smear by some.
A recent New York Post headline, for instance, blared that “America may soon be subjected to the country’s first DEI president: Kamala Harris.”
The “DEI” label isn’t the only type of attack that the right has been making against Harris. Former Trump White House official Sebastian Gorka, for instance, not only called Harris a “DEI hire,” but “colored,” during a Newsmax interview earlier this month.
Others, including former Trump lawyer John Eastman, have revived the “birther” conspiracy theory, insisting that Harris, who was born in California, isn’t a natural-born citizen.
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