Former Bernie Sanders campaign press secretary Briahna Joy Gray said Wednesday that while it was positive to see increased diversity in President-elect Joe Biden’s cabinet appointments, it was more meaningful if their policy approaches represented the interests of those groups.
“I don’t think that representation has no value whatsoever, but the most important thing, the principal concern, should be whether or not the people picked for these positions represent the interests of the group they physically represent,” Gray, who co-hosts the “Bad Faith” podcast, said in a Hill.TV interview Wednesday.
Gray said the diversity of Biden’s announcement appointments is both a hopeful sign and “an indictment of the homogeneity of past picks,” but that many of them have troubling histories on policy.
She specifically cited Center for American Progress head Neera Tanden, Biden’s nominee for head of the Office of Management and Budget and her past statements suggesting cuts to federal aid should be on the table in budget negotiations.
“It’s a little hypocritical to be speaking that way and representing yourself as in the best interests of people of color when in fact your stated policy positions are to the contrary,” she said, noting the disproportionate impact such cuts would have on people of color.
Gray also criticized the idea of diversity in Pentagon leadership being positive independent of policy, citing a political cartoon that has become a meme in leftist circles of Middle Eastern civilians pointing to a drone and saying “They say the next one will be sent by a woman.”
“That’s not how the world works,” she added.
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