As Republicans attempt to course-correct following the sudden shift in Democratic candidates, some have almost immediately leaned into racist critiques of Vice-President Kamala Harris.
On Monday, Glenn Grothman, a Wisconsin congressman, told a local affiliate that many Democrats feel they need to stick with Harris as a nominee “due to her ethnic background.”
In an interview with CNN’s Manu Raju that same day, Representative Tim Burchett of Tennessee was blunt with his assessment that Harris was an unqualified pick. “Biden said, first off, he said he’s going to hire a Black female for vice-president. What about white females? What about any other group?” he said. “When you go down that route, you take mediocrity, and that’s what they have right now with the vice-president.”
Raju then asked Burchett if he was suggesting that Harris was a “DEI hire,” a pejorative referencing diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives that many in the Republican Party have railed against. “100 percent. She was a DEI hire,” he said. “Her record is abysmal at best.”
In 2020, then-candidate Joe Biden vetted candidates like Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer and Minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar as part of his search for a running mate. During a March debate that year, Biden committed to selecting a woman vice-president, but did not explicitly indicate race like he did when he promised to nominate a Black woman to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Burchett did not apologize for his comments on Wednesday to HuffPost, saying he only regretted voicing his thoughts. “Do I wished I’d said it? No, but it was the truth,” he said. Congresswoman Lauren Boebert backed Burchett up on X , claiming that President Biden’s public comments about wanting a more diverse administration validated the congressman’s opinion. (Earlier this month, Boebert labeled White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre a “DEI hire.”)
Representative Harriet Hageman of Wyoming echoed Burchett’s words during a Tuesday TV interview in which she called Harris “really kind of the bottom of the barrel” intellectually. “I think she was a DEI hire. And I think that that’s what we’re seeing, and I just don’t think that they have anybody else,” she said.
Some congressional Republicans have criticized the rhetoric coming from colleagues. Florida representative Byron Donalds, who is Black, told CNN, “I don’t think we even need to say stuff like that.” Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska told HuffPost, “Of course it’s not appropriate, for heaven’s sakes. What, are they just going to say if you’re not a white male, it’s a DEI candidate?” And Wyoming senator Cynthia Lummis told Semafor that “I think we need to take her seriously,” referring to Harris. “And I think part of taking her seriously is disregarding issues of race and sex and just going at policy.”
The Associated Press reports that Republican leaders warned their caucus in a closed-door meeting to ease off comments about Harris’s race and gender and to focus on policy. “This should not be about personalities. It should be about policy. And we have a record to compare,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said following the meeting, per Politico.
At a press conference on Tuesday, Johnson said, “This isn’t personal with regard to Kamala Harris. Her ethnicity, her gender, has nothing to do with this whatsoever.”
Clearly, not everyone in his party is listening.
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