CBS News
Some Republicans attack Kamala Harris as “DEI hire.” Here’s what that means
In the days after President Biden endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to replace him in the 2024 presidential race, several Republican lawmakers suggested she had become the presumptive Democratic nominee on the basis of her gender and race.
Republicans referring to Harris as “DEI” hire
GOP Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee called Harris a “DEI vice president,” a reference to diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. Rep. Harriet Hageman of Wyoming called Harris a “DEI hire” and referred to her as “intellectually, just really kind of the bottom of the barrel.” Rep. Glenn Grothman of Wisconsin said in an interview with CBS News affiliate WDJT, in Milwaukee, that “Democrats feel they have to stick with her because of her ethnic background.”
But at this point, Harris, the sitting vice president, has decades of experience in elective office and is a seasoned politician, winning statewide elections in California for the U.S. Senate and state attorney general. She won her first race, for San Francisco district attorney, 20 years ago, in 2004.
Other Republicans say “that’s not where we want to go”
Slamming Harris as a DEI candidate struck other Republicans, including former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, as “totally stupid and dumb,” he said Tuesday on NBC News’ podcast “Meet the Press NOW.“
Other Republicans, too, have been calling on party colleagues to tamp down the rhetoric. In an interview Thursday with CBS News, Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida said the comments about DEI from his colleagues had been “nipped in the bud” and that he had stressed to them “that’s not where we want to go.”
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson told reporters on Wednesday that the election “is going to be about policies, not personalities” and said Harris’ “ethnicity or gender has nothing to do with this whatsoever.”
JD Vance and “childless cat ladies” remark
Attacks centering on Harris’ gender and race are not new. Supporters of GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump have long targeted Harris with insults like “Joe and the Hoe.” In 2021, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, who is now Trump’s running mate, told Tucker Carlson that the country was run by “a bunch of childless cat ladies,” including Harris.
Harris is a stepmother to two children from her husband’s previous marriage.
On Thursday, Harris’ stepdaughter, Ella Emhoff, posted on Instagram, “I love my three parents.” And earlier, first gentleman Doug Emhoff’s ex-wife told The New York Times in a statement, “For over 10 years, since Cole and Ella were teenagers, Kamala has been a co-parent with Doug and I. She is loving, nurturing, fiercely protective and always present. I love our blended family and am grateful to have her in it.”
Harris and Willie Brown
Critics have also resurfaced an old attack on Harris that alleges her past relationships powered her political ascent. Harris dated Willie Brown in the 1990s, the year before Brown was elected mayor of San Francisco. Brown, who was married but separated while he was dating Harris, appointed her to two state commission posts while he was serving as speaker of the California Assembly. Their relationship ended in 1995, nine years before Harris was elected San Francisco district attorney and later the state’s attorney general.
When Harris was running to be San Francisco’s district attorney in 2003, her ties to Brown made headlines. But Harris defended herself against critics who brought him up.
“I refuse to design my campaign around criticizing Willie Brown for the sake of appearing to be independent when I have no doubt that I am independent of him — and that he would probably right now express some fright about the fact that he cannot control me,” she said in an interview with SF Weekly that same year.
Bias and women running for office
Longstanding double standards likely contribute to the idea some people have that Harris didn’t earn her place in politics; over half of Americans think that women must to do more than men when seeking high political office, a 2023 Pew study found.
As a woman of color, Harris is more likely to be subject to this type of rhetoric, according to Nina Jankowicz, a disinformation researcher and founder of the American Sunlight Project, which aims to identify and expose disinformation. Jankowicz herself has been the victim of gendered attacks, and her appointment to lead the short-lived Disinformation Governance Board under Mr. Biden was met with vitriol from the right.
In a study in 2020 of abuse and disinformation targeting 13 female political candidates that Jankowicz led, 78% of the attacks targeted Harris. That year, as the Democratic vice presidential nominee, Harris was arguably the highest-profile woman in American politics.
“The idea there is to undermine her legitimacy, undermine her professionalism, undermine her accomplishments and appeal to people’s basic misogynistic instinct,” Jankowicz said. “There are people who are alleging that her accomplishments are less than, or that she didn’t earn her place because she is a Black woman.”
“Her terms in the Senate and her record as vice president speaks for itself,” she added.
One of 43 monkeys bred for medical research that escaped a compound in South Carolina has been recovered unharmed, officials said Saturday.
Many of the others are still located a few yards from the property, jumping back and forth over the facility’s fence, police said in a statement.
The Rhesus macaques made a break for it Wednesday after an employee at the Alpha Genesis facility in Yemassee didn’t fully lock a door as she fed and checked on them, officials said.
The monkeys on Friday were exploring the outer fence of the Alpha Genesis compound and were cooing at the monkeys inside. The primates continued to interact with their companions inside the facility on Saturday, which is a positive sign, the police statement said.
Yemassee Police Department
Alpha Genesis CEO Greg Westergaard relayed that efforts to recover all the animals will persist throughout the weekend and for as long as it takes, the statement said.
Westergaard told CBS News on Thursday that a caretaker inadvertently failed to secure a door at the enclosure, allowing the monkeys to roam free.
“It’s really like follow-the-leader. You see one go and the others go,” he said. “It was a group of 50 and 7 stayed behind and 43 bolted out the door.”
Westergaard acknowledged that it would be a long process to get them back and that they didn’t want to chase the monkeys because that would spook them and make them run away.
“We’ve got them very close,” he told CBS News. “This is all like what we want to see.”
The monkeys are about the size of a cat. They are all females weighing about 7 pounds.
Alpha Genesis, federal health officials and police all said the monkeys pose no risk to public health. The facility breeds the monkeys to sell to medical and other researchers.
Alpha Genesis provides primates for research worldwide at its compound in Yemassee, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) northeast of Savannah, Georgia, according to its website.
A 31-year-old American tourist was killed while on vacation in Hungary’s capital, and the suspect, a 37-year-old Irish man, has been arrested, Hungarian police said Saturday.
The victim, Mackenzie Michalski was reported missing on Nov. 5 after she was last seen at a nightclub in central Budapest.
A Facebook group called “Find Mackenzie Michalski,” created on November 7, said Michalski, went by “Kenzie.” The group confirmed her death in a statement on Friday, thanking U.S. and Hungarian authorities for “their prompt attention, diligence, care, and consideration.”
Police launched a missing person investigation and reviewed security footage from local nightclubs where they observed Michalski with a man later identified as the suspect in several of the clubs the night of her disappearance.
Police detained the man, an Irish citizen, on the evening of Nov. 7. Investigators said that Michalski and the suspect met at a nightclub and danced before leaving for the man’s rented apartment. The man killed Michalski while they were engaged in an “intimate encounter,” police said.
The suspect, whom police identified by the initials L.T.M., later confessed to the killing but said it had been an accident. Police said that he had attempted to cover up his crime by cleaning the apartment and hiding Michalski’s body in a wardrobe before purchasing a suitcase and placing her body inside.
He then rented a car and drove to Lake Balaton, around 90 miles southwest of Budapest, where he disposed of the body in a wooden area outside the town of Szigliget.
Video released by police showed the suspect guiding authorities to the location where he had left the body. Police said the suspect had made internet searches before being apprehended on how to dispose of a body, police procedures in missing person cases, whether pigs really eat dead bodies and the presence of wild boars in the Lake Balaton area.
He also made an internet search inquiring about the competence of Budapest police.
Michalski’s parents are currently in Budapest, police told The Associated Press.
Friends posted condolences on the Facebook group of candles. Michalski was a nurse practitioner, the social media post said, who used “her humor, positivity, and limitless empathy to help heal her patients and encourage family and friends alike.”
Two years of record-breaking drought have dealt a heavy blow to what is arguably the Amazon’s most successful sustainable economy: the managed fishery for the giant pirarucu.
In Brazil´s Amazonas state, almost 6,000 riverine dwellers authorized to fish have reported a sharp drop in production and rising costs. They are demanding aid from the federal government and debating how to adapt to climate change.
Last year’s catch totaled 70% of the government-authorized quota of 100,443 fish. This year could see an even steeper decline, since many communities still haven´t been able to fish. The season runs from June 1 to Nov. 30.
Jorge Saenz / AP
Pirarucu managed fishing began in the Amazon 25 years ago in the Mamiraua region and has since expanded. It helped the Amazon’s largest fish escape risk of extinction and is now an important source of income for locals in 10 sustainable conservation units and eight Indigenous territories, where deforestation is close to zero.
Unlike other aquatic species of the Amazon, such as river dolphins, the pirarucu — also known as arapaima — historically have proven resilient to drought and climate change. But low water levels are making it extremely difficult for fishers to transport their catch from remote lakes to major rivers and onto cities.
It’s a mammoth task. The pirarucu, which can weigh up to 200 kilograms (440 pounds), lives in large lakes that during flood season are often connected to major rivers. Fishing typically occurs when water levels begin to recede, making it easier to trap the fish and transport them out in small boats or canoes. In several areas, however, water levels dropped so quickly that this connection was cut off before fishing could begin.
In the São Raimundo community in the Medio Jurua region, fishing is scheduled to start Saturday, a two-month delay — a common situation this season. As a result, Coletivo Pirarucu, an umbrella organization that represents 2,500 riverine and Indigenous families, has requested that the federal government extend fishing season until the end of January.
Even in large rivers navigation has become problematic, raising costs and uncertainty among fishermen. It usually takes three to four days to transport fish from Carauari municipality — a major pirarucu producer — to Manaus, the Amazon´s largest city. During the peak of the drought, the trip increased to 10 days, and the freight price has doubled.
Tough as pirarucu are, they are not immune to climate change, according to researcher Adalberto Luis Val from the National Institute for Amazonian Research. He says rising temperatures and severe droughts are exacerbating the “death trio” for all fish: warmer water, more CO2 and less oxygen.
The pirarucu has evolved to breathe air but is far from invincible.
“No fish can regulate body temperature,” Val said. “Then there’s water scarcity. As its level drops, you start to get a high amount of suspended material, leading to sludge buildup. It sticks to the gill area, blocking the processes that occur there.”
Fearing deteriorating conditions in the following decades, Coletivo Pirarucu contends that the fishermen should be entitled to compensation for losses caused by climate change. “This crisis not only challenges the resilience of communities but also highlights the urgent need for climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies,” the nonprofit stated in an open letter last week.
In an e-mail response, James Bessa, a federal official overseeing pirarucu management, said that Ibama, Brazil´s environmental agency, is working with other public bodies and local fishing associations to reduce the impact of extreme events like droughts and floods. He said there are plans to start scientific studies and closer monitoring to provide insights into ways to support riverine and Indigenous communities in sustaining their fishing activities.
Adevaldo Dias — a riverine leader who presides over the Chico Mendes Memorial, a nonprofit that assists traditional non-Indigenous communities — argues that adopting additional public policies to help the fishermen is a matter of climate justice.
“The Indigenous and riverine peoples have minimal impact on the environment,” Dias said. “We know that conserving the forest benefits both us and those outside it. And when extreme climate events occur, they are the most vulnerable.”
