BIDEN: DEI are the core strength of America, and it starts at the top with the Vice President

Incumbent candidate President Joe Biden admitted on Wednesday what many already knew, that he chose Kamala Harris to be his Vice President due to the color of her skin and her female identity than because of her qualifications. Speaking at a campaign stop in Philadelphia, Biden said "to me the values of diversity, equality, inclusion are literally—and that's not kidding—the core strengths of America. That's why I'm proud to have the most diverse administration in history."

"I've tapped into the full talents of our country, and it starts at the top with the Vice President." 

When Joe Biden was running for president in 2020, he promised to bring more non-white people into his administration, and that included as his running mate. When considering veep candidates, he told Joy Reid "I am not committed to naming any (of the potential candidates), but the people I’ve named, and among them there are four Black women."

In fact, a letter was given to Biden, signed by over 100 black men, telling him that "failing to select a Black woman in 2020 means you will lose the election." The signers included Sean "Diddy" Combs, who is under investigation by a grant jury just impaneled in New York, as well as Charlamagne Tha God, to whom Biden said if black people don't vote for him then they "ain't black," and activist attorney Ben Crump, who was a prominent face in the George Floyd affair.

The reason behind the selection of a running mate who was, first and foremost, black and female was to secure loyal Democrat voters and activists and to make sure they turned out to the polls. The best way to do that, they figured, was by giving voters a reason that resonated with their identity and not with their ideology—although perhaps it would be more accurate to say that identity was ideology, as Biden emphasized during his Philadelphia speech. During his time in office, he has instituted DEI initiatives throughout ever agency in his administration, penning executive orders and instituting mandates and race-based quotes across for everything from agriculture to health directives to education.

After Harris was brought onto the ticket in August of 2020, longtime Democrat operative Minyon Moore said she did not know if Biden "will ever know what he did for a group of women who stand in the shadows of America. He has decided to write us into history. My nieces will see this—and generations to come."

Harris secured about 3 percent of the vote when she ran for president in her own right and dropped out of the race early due to that lack of support.