‘I’m Sorry?’ CNN Anchor Stunned By Pro-Trump Analyst Blaming Kamala Harris DEI Attacks On Biden

CNN anchor Kasie Hunt was stunned when pro-Trump analyst Scott Jennings tried to blame President Joe Biden for the “DEI hire” attacks on Vice President Kamala Harris .

“Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” (DEI) has become a popular political bogeyman among conservatives in what critics see as a code word for racial resentment, and “DEI hire” has become a theme of attacks on Harris — the first Black VP and first Black woman to become the presumptive nominee for president.

Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) ostentatiously referred to VP Harris as a “DEI hire” in an interview Monday, but other Trump surrogates have also used the line of attack — and one ex-Trump official even paired the insult with the term “colored.”

On Wednesday morning’s edition of CNN This Morning , Jennings tried to pin the attack on Biden, drawing a double-take from Hunt:

KASIE HUNT: Is one thing we have seen from, Republican candidates or a House members, I should say a pair of them so far. Is this claim that she is a quote unquote die candidate? And, you know, I had heard from one Republican who is close, who used to be very close to Donald Trump isn’t in the circle anymore. But he talked about how it’s going to be hard for Donald Trump to resist, some of his baser tendencies here. We’ve seen him as a, as a candidate attack people based on race and gender. You got both Mike Johnson and Kevin McCarthy out there saying that is a really bad idea. Don’t do that. It is bad politics. How do you see it?

SCOTT JENNINGS: Yeah. I don’t know what Trump personally is going to do. I don’t think the campaign is going to touch it because they don’t have to. I mean, look, first of all, it’s not the Republicans fault that, Joe Biden tagged her with this to some degree in 2020. I mean, it was Joe Biden who laid out the criteria for choosing a vice president. And his two principal criteria were.

KASIE HUNT: I’m sorry? You’re saying that Joe Biden made a DEI pick?

SCOTT JENNINGS: I’m saying that he unfairly, because she’s qualified, tagged her with that in the first place. And it’s not the Republicans’ fault that Biden did that to her.

She is absolutely qualified. She’s vice president. She was a senator. She was attorney general. She’s absolutely qualified.

But being qualified doesn’t make you the best choice. And the way to correctly argue the case against her is to let her positions and her record speak for themselves.

And there’s plenty of tape from her 2019 presidential campaign, and there’s plenty of record from her vice presidency to run on. You don’t have to go down this route.

BRAD WOODHOUSE: It’s just let me just say this. It’s disgusting, this DEI charge. And it wasn’t just the two people that said she’s a DEI hire. There’s another one said she’s only in this position because of her ethnic background.

And we had another person at a JD Vance rally said, well, if they win, we’re going to have a civil war. So … So, you know, it’s it’s pretty– it’s not you know, and Donald Trump, will he go there? I mean almost certainly he will, he will go there.

He started trotting out yesterday what he normally does. He’s road testing, invective and name calling. She’s nasty. She’s a liar. You know, which tells me the opposite of what Scott is saying.

They don’t know how to run against her, on, on the issues, and they don’t know how to defend her. Prosecuting him as a convicted felon. As a rapist, you know? And you go on, you go right on down the line. I mean, I think her presentation so far a contrast with him, the the message that she’s leveling against him is very effective. And all he’s come back with is she’s nasty.

Watch above via CNN This Morning .