Democratic Rep. Maxwell Frost of Florida accused Republicans criticizing Vice President Kamala Harris of being racist by calling her a “DEI vice president,” referencing diversity, equity and inclusion policies, in a Tuesday CNN appearance.
Harris reportedly secured enough delegates to receive the Democratic nomination for President Tuesday morning, shortly after President Joe Biden ended his reelection bid and gave her his endorsement for the nomination. Frost took aim at people who claimed that Harris was selected on the basis of being a woman and black while on “CNN Newsroom” Tuesday.
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“He is going to continue to use all these racist dog whistles throughout the campaign. We‘re going to see it from Trump, we‘re going to see it from J.D. Vance, and we‘re going to see it from a lot of their surrogates,” Frost told CNN host Jim Acosta. “In fact, just yesterday, one of the surrogates was saying, ‘If we don‘t win, we‘re going to have to have a civil war to get our agenda through.’ A civil war. And so this is an organization, this is a right-wing campaign that‘s going to be racist, misogynistic against the vice president, but we‘re going to stand on the issues and what really matters. It’s the fact that she is qualified.”
“They want to call her a DEI president or DEI candidate. She has more experience than Trump and J.D. Vance combined times a million, right?” Frost continued, referencing the DEI efforts, which have faced criticism for allegedly promoting racial discrimination. “She worked at the state level. She was the attorney general. She‘s vice president of the United States. She was a senator representing one of the largest states in the entire country. And so these are just racist dog whistles. Whenever you hear DEI, I want you to think about the n-word. I want you to think about racial slurs. That‘s what they actually mean.”
When pressed by Acosta about Republican Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee, who called Harris a “DEI vice president” during a Monday rally, Frost doubled down on his claim.
“I have a good relationship with the congressman,” Frost claimed. “I think sometimes, though, he does use rhetoric that is racist. And whether people know it’s racist or not, I‘m here to tell them that is racist, and I hope they won‘t use that rhetoric anymore.”
