Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) warned fellow Republicans about making racist attacks against Vice President Kamala Harris as she barrels into being named the Democratic presidential nominee.
McCarthy called out the “totally stupid” attacks by Republicans on the vice president in an interview on Tuesday, warning they would backfire.
President Joe Biden endorsed Harris as the presumptive nominee after he announced Sunday that he was ending his re-election bid. Harris, a former U.S. senator from California who had also served as the state’s attorney general, ran against Biden in 2020 but was later tapped by the Democrat as his running mate after he had declared he would be choosing a woman as his VP.
Republicans have focused. among other things, on this aspect of Harris’ background to question her qualifications to be elected commander-in-chief.
“One hundred percent, she was a DEI hire,” Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) told CNN’s Manu Raju on Monday, referring to “diversity, equity, and inclusion.”
But McCarthy found this and other criticisms a “mistake” by the GOP.
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“A lot of people already think that attack line is racist,” NBC News’ Garrett Haake said on Tuesday’s “Meet the Press Now.”
“Are you confident that your party and Donald Trump can stay on the other side of the line and not delve into racially charged or racist attacks on a black female candidate?” he asked McCarthy.
“Two attacks I’ve heard Republicans give that are totally stupid and dumb to do is the DEI attack, ok? The other attack that I would not do is saying that the president has to resign. That would be an advantage for Kamala,” the former congressman replied.
“Air Force One is very powerful when it lands somewhere. And you know what? Something will happen between now and the election. A hurricane or something else. And she’ll be able to present herself as a leader. Or maybe there’s some foreign policy. That is a mistake for any leader to go out and say that on the Republican side,” he added.
“This DEI, that seems like a petty– look, I disagree with DEI, but she is the vice president of the United States. She is the former U.S. senator. These congressmen that are saying it, they’re wrong in their own instincts,” McCarthy contended.
The Republican did, however, express his doubts about Harris being able to sustain any momentum for her new campaign, pointing out her previous runs for office and her dismal polling.
“I think for the Democrats, this is a positive that Biden’s not running, the bottom was about to fall out in the polling…but I still see her as an underdog in her ability to win,” he said, noting that she “owns” all of the failed Biden administration policies.