Outgoing Democrat President Joe Biden himself called his own Vice President Kamala Harris a “diversity, equality, and inclusion” pick just two months ago. Of course, what this means is that Biden himself called Harris a DEI vice presidential selection.
In late May 2024, when Biden was still running for president and before the debate with Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump in late June, Biden gave a speech in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, alongside Harris. In the speech, Biden explicitly referred to Harris as a DEI vice president.
“To me, the values of diversity, equality, inclusion are literally — and this is not kidding — the core strengths of America,” Biden said in the address, according to a White House website transcript. “That’s why I’m proud to have the most diverse administration in history that taps into the full talents of our country. And it starts at the top with the Vice President.”
The fact that Biden himself was touting Harris just two months ago as someone who exemplifies what he calls “the most diverse administration in history” representative of “the values of diversity, equality, inclusion” is significant, since several allies of Harris have now argued that calling her a DEI vice president is somehow offensive. But Harris did not object at the time to Biden’s characterization of her. Only now that she is the Democrat standard-bearer — having quickly been coronated as the new presumptive Democratic presidential nominee less than 48 hours after Biden dropped out of the race on Sunday — are some leftists objecting to what Biden himself called his vice president.
In fact, the entire reason why Harris was picked for vice president was she is a black woman. Democrats have been proud of this for years, all the way back to early 2020 when then-House Majority Whip Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC)—now just a senior Democrat congressman from South Carolina, no longer in Democrats’ House leadership team—made a deal with Biden to deliver him South Carolina’s votes and lock down the 2020 Democrat nomination for Biden. The deal was Biden would select a black woman as his vice president in exchange for Clyburn’s support. This deal is extremely well known and bragged about publicly by the various players involved. When Clyburn upheld his end of the bargain, Biden later upheld his by selecting his onetime rival Harris. Harris had run against Biden for the nomination in 2020 but dropped out even before the Iowa caucuses as her campaign fizzled under scrutiny.
Many across establishment media and several Democrats have accused Republicans who made the argument that Harris is a DEI pick for vice president of being racist. But it’s unclear if these same people believe that Joe Biden himself is a racist for saying exactly the same thing alongside Harris in Philadelphia in late May. Time will tell.
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