Naomi Lim and Ramsey Touchberry of the Washington Examiner ponder the Republican Party’s approach to presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.
Republicans are grappling with how to politically attack the new Democrat poised to be at the top of the ticket, Vice President Kamala Harris, the first black and South Asian woman vice president, presidential nominee, and possibly president, roughly 100 days before the 2024 election.
Harris’s record as a San Francisco district attorney, California attorney general, Golden State senator, and 2020 presidential candidate before President Joe Biden tapped her as his vice presidential pick provides Republicans with fodder.
But some GOP lawmakers have, instead, underscored her ethnicity and gender, resulting in them having to respond to allegations that they are being racist or sexist and undermining the party’s standing with centrist and independent voters.
The loudest congressional Republican amplifying Harris’s ethnicity and gender is Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN), who doubled down Wednesday on describing the vice president as a diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI, hire.
“When folks are explained that this was in fact a statement that the president had made and that it was one of his criteria for putting her on the ballot with him, then folks understand it,” Burchett told SiriusXM to explain his comments. “Actually members of Congress, both parties, have said, ‘Look, yeah, we get it, but this is what we’ve gotta do because this is what our base and our leadership’s demanding.’ So, yeah. Do I wish I’d said it? No, but it was the truth.”
Earlier, Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-WY), also criticized Harris for “intellectually, just really kind of the bottom of the barrel.”
“I think she was a DEI hire,” Hageman told Gray DC. “I think that that’s what we’re seeing and I just don’t think that they have anybody else.”
