Senate Republican Whip John Thune (R-SD) issued a warning to former President Donald Trump to stick to “the issues,” particularly in relation to Vice President Kamala Harris.
In response to remarks made by Trump about Harris at the annual convention of the National Association of Black Journalists, in which he claimed that Harris had not identified as black until a few years ago, Thune offered his counsel. Harris is a Southeast Asian and black person.
Thune stated, “The campaign should and must focus on the issues, and there is plenty to discuss. That’s simply where I believe the emphasis should be. We’re going to prevail in this fashion in November.”
The National Republican Congressional Committee chairman Richard Hudson (R-NC) and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) have also issued similar cautions, which Thune’s statement echoes. Johnson has maintained that “issues and not individuals” will decide the election.
Representative Tim Burchett (R-TN) retracted his statement last week on Senator Harris becoming “a DEI” (diversity, equality, and inclusion) vice president. The congressman from Tennessee stated that, although he regretted speaking negatively of Harris, “it was the truth.”
Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL) asserted that calling Harris a DEI candidate was akin to calling him a racist epithet before Burchett made this about-face. He said he had “a good connection” with Burchett, but that sometimes the latter employs “rhetoric that is racist” when asked if he thought Burchett had been racist in his earlier remark about Harris.