GOP Rep. Burchett calls Harris a ‘DEI hire’ 

Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) on Monday doubled down on previous claims that Vice President Kamala Harris is a diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) hire, blasting her a day after becoming the frontrunner to replace President Biden as the Democratic nominee following his historic exit from the race. 

“The incompetency level is at an all-time high in Washington. The media propped up this president, lied to the American people for three years, and then dumped him for our DEI vice president,” Burchett wrote in a post on the social platform X, highlighting an earlier interview with NewsNation. 

The Tennessee Republican reiterated these comments at the Capitol on Monday to CNN’s Manu Raju, arguing that former President Trump would now perform better with Harris at the top of the Democratic ticket.

“Biden said he’s gonna hire a Black female for vice president,” Burchett said. “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.” 

Burchett was then asked directly if he believed Harris was a DEI hire.

“100 percent she was a DEI hire,” he responded. 

This is not the first time Burchett has suggested that Harris was selected as Biden’s running mate because of her racial and gender identity. 

“When I hear her talk, I just scratch my head and think this is what DEI is really about,” Burchett said in an interview with Newsmax earlier this month.

“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.”

The Tennessee Republican also took aim at DEI policies during a heated House hearing on Monday in which Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle was grilled by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle about the assassination attempt of former President Trump at a recent rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Burchett, who has joined several of his Republican colleagues in calling for Cheatle to resign, went after the agency’s leader, at one point taking an explicit swipe at her gender with reference to DEI initiatives. 

“Ma’am, you are a DEI horror story,” Burchett told Cheatle. “I’ve told my daughter multiple times … about how she’ll succeed in life. She’ll succeed in life by achieving. Ma’am, you have not achieved today. You have let the American public down.”

While Cheatle has served as director for just under two years, she has spent nearly 30 years working for the Secret Service, including as the special agent in charge of the Atlanta field office and as the assistant director of protective operations.

In the wake of Trump’s shooting, Cheatle came under fire from conservatives who suggested, without evidence, that agents are underqualified and were only hired because of DEI policies. 

Though the Secret Service has employed female agents for more than 50 years, Cheatle is only the second woman to lead the agency. In an interview last year with CBS News, she laid out a goal of having 30 percent female recruits by 2030.

Following Burchett’s comments, Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) probed Cheatle on what led to Trump’s attempted assassination. 

 “Was the incident on July 13 due to DEI, or rather systemic failures in communication and potentially safety protocols?” Crockett asked.

“The incident on the 13th has nothing to do with DEI,” Cheatle said. “The incident on the 13th has to do with a failure or a gap in either planning or communication.”