GOP leaders beg Republicans to stop making racist comments about Kamala Harris

In a closed-door meeting this week, House Republican leaders told their colleagues to stop making racist comments about presumptive Vice President Kamala Harris, the first Black and South Asian woman to be a major party nominee. Earlier this week, two of them referred to the Democratic presidential nominee as a “DEI hire” and another implied that Democrats value Harris mostly because of her “ethnic background.”

“DEI” — which refers to diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts — has become a racist and sexist right-wing dog whistle that implies that someone was hired for their social identities rather than their qualifications. In reality, Harris — who is of Jamaican and Indian descent — has much more governmental experience than the two men leading the Republican presidential ticket: former President Donald Trump and Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, who has only served in Congress since 2022.

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In the closed-door Tuesday meeting, Rep. Richard Hudson (R-NC), who serves as Chair of the House GOP campaign arm, and other GOP House leaders reportedly warned fellow House members to stop all attacks on Harris’ racial identity.

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Earlier this week, Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) referred to Harris as the “DEI vice president,” Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-WY) referred to her as a “DEI hire,” and Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-WI) wondered whether Democrats had chosen her as their new presidential candidate, following President Joe Biden’s exit, because of Harris’ “ethnic background.” Even Vance said Harris just sat around “collecting a government paycheck for the last 20 years,” as if she were some welfare recipient rather than a devoted public servant.

When asked about @KamalaHarris candidacy, @HagemanforWY calls @VP a "DEI hire."

"Intellectually, just really kind of the bottom of the barrel…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." pic.twitter.com/Dj9y4pKHrj

— Josh Rultenberg (@JoshRultNews) July 23, 2024

One House Republican who attended the meeting, but who spoke anonymously to Politico, said, “We have everything going our way and [our Republican House colleagues] just can’t handle that? We’ll give you a cheat sheet if you don’t know what else to talk about.”

After the meeting, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) told the aforementioned publication, “This should not be about personalities. It should be about policy, and we have a record to compare. This has nothing to do with race. It has to do with the competence of the person running for president, the relative strength of the two candidates and what ideas they have on how to solve America’s problems. And I think in that comparison, we’ll win in a landslide.”

Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-SD) echoed Johnson’s sentiments, saying, “[Republicans] should run this campaign based on the fact that [Harris] hasn’t done a very good job … [rather than] make allegations.”

Other right-wing social media commenters have begun circulating racist claims that Kamala cannot legally run for president because she has immigrant parents and was allegedly “born in Canada.” Harris was actually born in Oakland, California, and was bestowed with U.S. citizenship upon birth, thanks to the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

When asked about the closer door meeting, lesbian White House Correspondent Carine Jean-Pierre said, “When you have the Speaker of the House [Mike Johnson]… set up a meeting to tell Republican leaders to stop being racist, to stop being misogynist, to stop being sexist, I think that says a lot that they have to be told to not do that.

“But more broadly,” she continued, “I think it’s desperate, I think it’s disgusting, and I think it’s a dog whistle. And we should not forget that she is the vice president of the United States. She’s the vice president of the United States. She should get that respect.”

Despite Republicans’ claims that she was just a “DEI hire,” Harris has over 20 years of experience serving in government. She won her 2003 election to serve as the District Attorney of San Francisco, her 2010 election to become California’s Attorney General, her 2016 election to the U.S. Senate, and her 2020 election as vice president alongside President Joe Biden.

Comparatively, Trump and Vance — the Republicans’ presidential and vice presidential nominees — have a combined six years of experience working in government.

Aside from their racist attacks, Republicans have already begun labeling Harris as Biden’s “border czar” to blame her for the decades-long flood of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border due to political instability abroad and decades without substantive border immigration reforms in the United States.

However, Biden only tasked Harris with reducing corruption, creating jobs, and improving food security near the border as well as understanding the causes of the mass migration there — not with fixing immigration issues, whose fixing is largely the responsibility of Congress and the Department of Homeland Security.

As the daughter of immigrants, Harris has largely supported reforms to help provide special visas, legal help, and immigration assistance to non-violent and asylum-seeking immigrants trying to cross the border. Republicans stonewalled a bipartisan border security bill, the first of its kind in decades, earlier this year after Trump told them to.

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