July 23, 2024
Rep. Tim Burchett Calls Kamala Harris A ‘DEI Vice President,’ Wonders Why A White Woman Wasn’t Chosen For Vice President
So DEI is just another way of being racist now?
Republican Congressman Rep. Tim Burchett (TN) shared some choice feelings about Vice President and expected Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris during an impromptu interview, calling her a “DEI vice president,” referring to diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.
CNN Chief Congressional Correspondent Manu Raju went around Capitol Hill to ask some GOP lawmakers how they felt about the possibility of having the first Black-South Asian woman become President of the United States. Then Raju got to Burchett.
“Biden said, first off, he was going to hire a Black female for vice president,” the legislator said. “What about white females? What about any other group? When you go down that route and you take mediocrity, and that’s what they have right now as a vice president.” When Raju suggested that Harris was a “DEI hiring,” Burchett agreed. “One-hundred percent,” he said, “she was a DEI hire.”
The legislator shared the same thoughts on X. During an interview with NewsNation, he attacked Harris’ “incompetency levels,” claiming she was “a disaster on the border” and wouldn’t be “able to find the border with a compass and a map.”
“The incompetency level is at an all-time high in Washington,” he wrote. “The media propped up this president, lied to the American people for three years, and then dumped him for our DEI vice president.”
According to NBC News, Burchett, who was elected to Congress in 2018, often cites DEI when discussing Harris.
“When I hear her talk, I just scratch my head and think this is what DEI is really about,” Burchett said. “It clearly is. She checks all the boxes. She’ll say she’s of Indian descent one day, then she’ll say she’s of Black descent. It’s just box-checking.”
Burchett used the same rhetoric during a House Committee on Oversight and Accountability hearing with now former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle. While members of Congress grilled Cheatle about the lack of security that resulted in an assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump, Burchett called Cheatle a “DEI horror story.”
He suggested that the director was only hired because she is a woman, to expand on opportunities for women in workplaces, and to create more inclusive organizational cultures.
Rep. Jasmine Crockett, who participated in the hearing, seemingly defended Cheatle after she was attacked by Burchett by asking if the assassination attempt was “due to DEI or rather systemic failures in communication and potentially safety protocols.”
Burchett is being challenged by Democrat Jane George during the general election in November. “This kind of demeaning language is not only inappropriate for a congressional leader, it is an embarrassment for those he represents,” George said.
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