Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) expressed some regret for referring to Vice-President Kamala Harris as a diversity, equity and inclusion “(DEI) hire,” but is still standing by the comment.
“Do I wish I’d said it? No, but it was the truth,” Burchett told Laura Coates on SiriusXM’s “The Laura Coates Show.”
The congressman was condemned for comments he made to CNN on Monday suggesting that Harris, the first Black and female VP in the country’s history, was chosen based on her race and gender.
“Biden said he’s gonna hire a Black female for vice president,” Burchett told CNN. “What about white females? What about any other group? When you go down that route, you take mediocrity and that’s what they have right now as a vice president.”
Asked directly whether he is suggesting that Harris is a “DEI hire,” Burchett responded: “One hundred percent, she was a DEI hire.”
Burchett also made similar comments in a post on X, writing: “The media propped up this president, lied to the American people for three years, and then dumped him for our DEI vice president.”
Burchett told Coates that it was “folks from out of the district” who were not happy with his comments but his constituents were “overwhelmingly in favor of it.”
“When folks are explained that this was in fact a statement that the president had made, and that it was one of his criteria for putting her on the ballot with him, then folks understand it,” he said.
