GOP Rep. Tim Burchett calls Kamala Harris a 'DEI vice president'

Rep. Tim Burchett, a Tennessee Republican, blasted Kamala Harris in a social media post Monday calling her a “DEI vice president,” using the acronym for “diversity, equity and inclusion” programs.

"The media propped up this president, lied to the American people for three years, and then dumped him for our DEI vice president," Burchett said in a post on X.

He also referred to Harris as "a DEI hire" in a brief interview Monday, telling CNN that during the 2020 campaign then-candidate Joe Biden said “he was going to hire a Black female for vice president.”

“What about white females? What about any other group?” Burchett added.

Biden said during a March 2020 Democratic debate that he’d choose a female running mate, but did not mention race or ethnicity. Other top VP contenders at the time included Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan.

Biden announced Sunday that he was dropping his 2024 re-election bid. He endorsed Harris for president on the same day.

Burchett has previously cited DEI in disparaging Harris. During an an interview with Newsmax this month, he said: "When I hear her talk, I just scratch my head and think this is what DEI is really about. It clearly is. She checks all the boxes. She'll say she's of Indian descent one day, then she'll say she's of Black descent. It's just box-checking."

Harris is the first female and Black vice president. She is the daughter of an Indian mother and a Jamaican father, with a résumé that includes being elected as San Francisco district attorney, California attorney general and a U.S. senator.

Burchett also used a DEI attack line during a heated House committee hearing Monday on the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.