House Republicans leaders, including Speaker Mike Johnson, have asked their members not to make comments about Vice President Harris\u2019s race after a number of GOP lawmakers referenced her identity in attacks on the likely Democratic presidential nominee.<\/p>\n
Almost immediately after President Biden announced Sunday that he was endorsing Harris to replace him on the ticket, Republicans began their offensive, with some veering into attacks over the race and gender of the first Black and South Asian woman to serve as vice president.<\/p>\n
In a closed-door conference meeting on Tuesday, House GOP leaders, including Johnson (La.) and Rep. Richard Hudson (N.C.), chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, told Republicans to focus on Harris\u2019s policy record and time in the administration rather than go after her identity, according to multiple people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to freely discuss internal conversations. Politico first reported on the meeting.<\/p>\n
Johnson later told reporters that the he thinks Republicans should make the election \u201cabout policies, not personalities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Following Harris\u2019s emergence as a likely Biden replacement, Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.), in a post on X, called Harris a \u201cDEI vice president\u201d \u2014 referring to \u201cdiversity, equity and inclusion.\u201d House Republicans have sought to counter such diversity initiatives in federal programs through the funding process.<\/p>\n
Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-Wyo.), who defeated former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) in 2022, told a reporter that she thinks Harris is \u201ca DEI hire.\u201d And Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-Wis.) told a CBS affiliate that Democrats chose Harris as the likely nominee \u201cbecause of her ethnic background.\u201d<\/p>\n
In recent years, conservatives have targeted \u201cDEI\u201d programs \u2014 often used at workplaces to diversify the workforce \u2014 because they say they lead to minorities getting jobs over White candidates.<\/p>\n
Other Republicans echoed Johnson\u2019s admonition. In an interview with The Washington Post, Rep. David Joyce (R-Ohio) said members attacking Harris\u2019s race \u201cneed to keep their mouths shut and just worry about their [district] race.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think Vice President Harris and former president Trump is the match and let those two talk about each other,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Democrats, meanwhile, chided Republicans for attacking Harris\u2019s identity.<\/p>\n
\u201cDEI stands for diversity, equity and inclusion. That means all of us, not some of us,\u201d said Rep. Robin Kelly (D-Ill.), a member of the Congressional Black Caucus. \u201cSo they\u2019re trying to just make their attacks \u2014 some sad ones, too, that we\u2019ve seen \u2014 but we\u2019ll get past that, and she\u2019ll get past that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a strategy that\u2019s going to backfire,\u201d Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) told CNN. \u201cThe majority of Americans \u2014 women \u2014 know what this feels like, to do everything you can to get your credentials, college education, advanced degrees, and, no matter what you do, people say you\u2019re not enough. Or that you don\u2019t belong in that room.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) said that those calling Harris a \u201cDEI candidate\u201d forget that she has \u201cmore experience than Trump and J.D. Vance combined times a million.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe worked at the state level. She was the [California] attorney general. She\u2019s vice president of the United States. She was a senator representing one of the largest states in the entire country,\u201d he told CNN. \u201cThese are just racist dog whistles.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, Burchett said that while he wishes he hadn\u2019t made those comments about Harris, \u201cit was the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not racist behavior,\u201d he told SiriusXM. \u201cThat\u2019s the furthest thing from my mind. I just want the best players put in.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
House Republicans leaders, including Speaker Mike Johnson, have asked their members not to make comments about Vice President Harris\u2019s race after a number of GOP lawmakers referenced her identity in attacks on the likely Democratic presidential nominee. Almost immediately after President Biden announced Sunday that he was endorsing Harris to replace him on the ticket, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":6648,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6647\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}