KAMALA HARRIS AND DEI. A handful of Republicans have referred to Vice President Kamala Harris, now the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, as a “DEI hire.” They were essentially saying that President Joe Biden picked Harris to be his running mate in 2020 because she was a person of color. Democrats have, of course, pushed back, calling the phrase “extremely offensive and dehumanizing,” in the words of former U.N. Ambassador and Obama and Biden White House insider Susan Rice. Some Republicans, such as former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, pushed back, too, calling the accusation “totally stupid and dumb.”

The issue goes back to the 2020 Democratic presidential primary. In March of that year, when he had all but wrapped up the nomination, Biden explicitly promised to choose a woman as his running mate. “I commit that I will, in fact, appoint a, pick a woman to be vice president,” Biden said in a debate with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT).