Elected Republicans Start To Back Off ‘DEI’ Attacks On Kamala Harris

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) distanced himself from attacks on Vice President Kamala Harris’ race and gender after other Republican lawmakers dismissed her as a “DEI hire” earlier this week.

Conservatives have made a bogeyman out of DEI hiring initiatives, which promote diversity, equity and inclusion, by claiming without evidence that they deprioritize skills and qualifications.

Johnson suggested Republicans should focus on Harris’ record rather than her background.

“Listen, this election, as I noted at the onset, is going to be about policies, not personalities. This is not personal regarding Kamala Harris,” Johnson said Tuesday at a press conference. “Her ethnicity and her gender have nothing to do with this whatsoever. This is about who can deliver for the American people and get us out of the mess that we’re in.”

President Joe Biden announced Sunday that he would be standing down his reelection campaign following widespread concerns about his ability to serve another four years, throwing his support behind Harris. Democratic lawmakers and delegates followed suit, prompting some Republicans to go straight after Harris’ ethnicity and gender.

“One hundred percent, she was a DEI hire,” Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) told CNN’s Manu Raju on Monday, adding, “When you go down that route, you get mediocrity.”

On Tuesday, Burchett and several other Republicans said it was Joe Biden who trumpeted “diversity, equity and inclusion” as core American values, noting Biden chose Harris as his running mate in 2020 after pledging to pick a Black woman. But they said that they would focus on her record rather than her identity.

“I think we can just focus on her performance as vice president, as the ‘border czar,’ and that is