Another Republican labels Harris ‘DEI hire’

Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-Wyo.) criticized the Democratic Party for embracing Vice President Harris as its likely nominee, saying she is a diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) hire.

“I think she’s one of the weakest candidates I’ve ever seen in the history of our country,” Hageman said in a video clip posted online by Gray DC’s Josh Rultenberg. “I mean, intellectually, just really kind of the bottom of the barrel.”

Hageman hit Harris over her stance on immigration and “failure” to handle the influx of migrants crossing the country’s southern border.

“I think it’s just a failure from top to bottom,” Hageman said. “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. I just think that they’re in real disarray.”

In an emailed statement to The Hill, Hageman pointed to a 2019 rally where President Biden said he was considering a person of color and a woman to be his running mate.

“Joe Biden himself said he preferred a Vice President based on their race and gender. Kamala Harris is more liberal than Bernie Sanders– she wants to ban fracking and offshore drilling, take away consumer choice to eat meat, turn illegal immigration into a civil offense– all things not in line with the people of Wyoming or the country as a whole,” Hageman’s statement said.

Harris has made a splash entering the 2024 presidential election at an unusual time after Biden announced Sunday that he would no longer be running. The vice president, who is of Jamaican and Indian decent, would be the first woman and first woman of color to serve as the country’s president.

Hageman is among several GOP lawmakers who have cited Harris’s gender and race in arguing that she is unqualified.

Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) has similarly said Harris was a “DEI hire,” and on Wednesday doubled down on the claim even as he said he regretted calling her that. Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-Wis.) said Democrats feel like they have to stick with Harris after Biden bowed out “because of her ethnic background.”

The attacks have drawn criticism from multiple political and media figures, with Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) saying earlier this week that they’re among “racist dog whistles” being used against Harris as she launches her presidential campaign. Some Republicans are warning their GOP colleagues to back off the DEI talk as the party seeks to maintain ground with voters of color.