House

Crockett rips Chip Roy for calling Harris ‘DEI’ hire

Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) dug into Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) Monday after he called Vice President Harris a diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) hire.

“I want people to listen to them, if you just listen to what they say, it will tell you everything that you need to know,” Crockett said Monday on MSNBC’s “The ReidOut.”

“Number one, you can obviously see that he’s ignorant as all get out,” she continued. “And number two, you can see that he wishes he had half the competency of Vice President Kamala Harris.”

Roy, earlier Monday, told Fox Business that he does not believe Democrats will move to force out President Biden, despite the mounting concerns over his ability to beat former President Trump and serve a second term following his disastrous debate performance last month.

“I don’t think they [Democrats] can. They’re in a box,” Roy said. “They are in a box where they’ve got to choose between a mentally incompetent president and a DEI vice president. And they know that they’re gonna be facing a problem either way.”

Crockett replied to the clip later Monday, saying, “Don’t talk to me about what DEI hire looks like because we know that you have never engaged in diversity, equity or inclusion when it came to your office.

“So, we know that you don’t know anything about hiring diversity,” she added.

The Texas Democrat also criticized Republican leadership in Florida and the Lone Star state, urging them to “come up with actual policies, instead of going after people because of how they look or how they were born.”

“Instead, they need to focus on taking care of the American people, which means that you’re going to take care of people other than just white folk,” said.

When asked Tuesday on Dana Loesch’s radio show about the criticism he has received for the comment, Roy said, “Well, it’s the only page they know because they tried class warfare and it failed, they tried to advance the radical ideas, they failed. So, what do they do? They try to divvy us up by race.” 

“He [Biden] didn’t say what I would say or what I think former President Trump would say or somebody who believes in American value, in saying, ‘The best person for the job, regardless of whether they’re a man or a woman, Black or white, or wherever they come from.’ That’s the American way,” Roy continued. 

“Nobody looks at Kamala Harris and says, ‘Oh man, that’s the best we can do.’ Who in the hell says that? Like literally, like I mean, this is someone who was given the title ‘border czar,’ and what has she done? Nothing. Destroyed our country,” he added. 

Harris’s name has been repeatedly floated as a potential replacement for Biden should he choose to step out of the 2024 race in the wake of mounting pressure from within his party.

Biden has maintained he intends to stay in the race and take on former President Trump in November. He again rejected calls to drop out of the race in a letter to congressional Democrats Monday, urging them to unite behind his candidacy.

Harris made clear last week she supports Biden’s continued bid for a second term.

This story was updated at 4:17 p.m.

Tags 2024 presidential election Biden-Harris campaign Chip Roy DEI Donald Trump Jasmine Crockett Joe Biden Kamala Harris

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