Kamala Harris was a DEI hire. You know it. I know it. Kamala knows it. Joe Biden certainly knows it. But for some reason, this reality is taboo. You simply can't say it without someone getting triggered.
During a Q&A session with the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) at their annual convention on Wednesday, ABC senior congressional correspondent Rachel Scott brought up the whole "Kamala Harris was a DEI hire" issue.
"Let me just ask a follow-up sir, then we'll move on to other questions here. Some of your own supporters, including Republicans on Capitol Hill have labeled Vice President Kamala Harris, who is the first black and Asian woman to serve as Vice President and be on a major party ticket, as a DEI hire," Scott began. "Is that acceptable language to you? And will you tell those Republicans and those supporters to stop it?"
"How do you define DEI? Go ahead. How do you define it?" Trump asked.
"Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion?" Scott responded.
"Is that your definition? Give me a definition," Trump continued.
"Those are the words for, DEI, Sir. I'm asking you a question, I've defined it for you. Do you believe VP Kamala Harris is only on the ticket because she is a black woman?"
Let's be honest here; Trump gave the wrong answer.
"Well, I can say, maybe it's a little bit different," he began. "I've known her for a long time indirectly, not directly so much. She was always of Indian heritage and she was only promoting Indian heritage. I didn't know she was black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn "black," and now she wants to be known as black. So, I don't know, is she Indian or is she black?"
Related: Nate Silver Warns That Kamala Harris Has One Big Problem
Biden hasn't even tried to conceal the fact that he put candidates' identities first, so all Trump had to say was that Biden made it clear when he was running in 2020 that he would pick a woman as his running mate.
“I commit that I will in fact pick a woman to be vice president,” Biden said during a Democratic primary debate in March of 2020. Four months later, he highlighted the fact that of those women on his short list, four of them were black women.
“I am not committed to naming any (of the potential candidates), but the people I’ve named, and among them there are four black women,” Biden said on MSNBC.
Trump could have easily pointed that out without making an issue of which race Harris primarily identifies with at any given time — which is a whole other issue.
On top of that, Trump should also have pointed out that the same people who take offense at dubbing Harris a DEI hire are the same people who support DEI policies. If DEI policies are such a good thing, why are they treating the term "DEI hire" as a pejorative? If DEI is good, why is calling someone a DEI hire unacceptable language?
Trump also could have similarly expanded on his answer by pointing out that Biden said he'd pick a black woman to serve on the Supreme Court.
So while Trump's answer could have been better, The fact remains that Harris is indeed a DEI hire. As for those who think it's an insult, then why do they advocate for DEI hiring policies?
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