A former Donald Trump aide called Vice President Kamala Harris a “DEI hire” and was reprimanded by a Democratic counterpart in an interview.
John Ulyot told Newsmax host Sarah Williamson and Democratic columnist Ellis Henican that former president Barack Obama has been “running the show with his henchman and his aides” under President Biden and it’s Obama who will ultimately decide the 2024 Democratic. candidate
“If he throws support behind any of the candidates, that’s who they’re going to go with,” Ulyot said of Obama and the Democratic party. He added that Harris will likely be the next Democratic candidate, because she is a DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) hire.
"She was hired because President Biden said when he was a candidate that he wanted to hire a woman to be his number two, and then after the BLM riots, then he got a lot of pressure to have a Black woman from a lot of Black women's groups, and he did that," Ulyot said.
Williamson was quick to disagree with Ulyot.
“The DEI thing I disagree with, but this is not my place to have a disagreement with you,” she said.
Henican too scolded Ulyot for his comment. “John you shouldn’t talk like that, it makes you sound like a racist. Don’t talk like that,” he told Ulyot.
Ulyot replied that the Democratic Party embraces DEI and puts “identity above qualifications.”
It’s not the first time Republicans have used “DEI hire” as a thinly veiled racial slur. Just last week, Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., called White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre a “discredited DEI Hire” in a rant on X. In February, Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., said “DEI isn’t a real good strategy for Republican candidate recruitment” after his fellow Republican, Mazi Melese Pilip, who was born in Ethiopia, lost in a New York congressional special election, CNN reported.
On Saturday, the New York Posted, a right-wing tabloid owned by Rupert Murdoch, published an opinion piece titled, “America may soon be subjected to the country’s first DEI president: Kamala Harris,” written by Fox Business senior correspondent Charles Gasparino.
In the piece, Gasparino slammed DEI programs across the country for “destroying businesses” before attributing Harris’ vice presidency and 16 years in public service to diversity, equity and inclusion efforts by the Democratic Party.
“Yes, maybe the most irrepressibly fatuous politician in America may become the leader of the free world because the Democratic Party is unable to break its DEI stranglehold,” he wrote.
