https://politico.com/live-updates/congress/phillips-takes-heat
Rep. Barbara Lee, a prominent progressive running for Senate in California, rebuked Phillips for the move, which she said she had not previously read about.
“I think that speaks volumes as to what his values are,” Lee said. Phillips has already angered some House Democratic colleagues with his decision to take on Biden.
Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) was blunt: “I’m disappointed.” Beyer said Democrats should not allow themselves to be pressured by the right into “abandoning things we believe in, but he may have had a good reason.”
The donor who criticized the language, hedge fund investor Bill Ackman, previously called Phillips' DEI language a “mistake” and said the candidate was “getting educated” about the topic. Phillips' campaign confirmed on Tuesday that it replaced the DEI language with the phrase "Equity & Restorative Justice," stating that DEI — a decades-old initiative in academia and government aimed at promoting fairer representation of groups that have faced historic discrimination — "now means such divergent things to different people."
Rep. Steven Horsford (D-Nev.), the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, posted on X implying that Ackman’s $1 million contribution to the Phillips effort led to the campaign dropping the DEI language.
@D3legateJimRepublican5mos5MO
Democratic candidate Dean Phillips replaces the heading “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” with the slightly more noxious “Equity and Restorative Justice” on his campaign website, while keeping the same garbage language in the text underneath it.
@Bl4ckBallotBassLibertarian5mos5MO
He doesn't get it, and probably will never get it, and there's no point to hoping that he will. He's mouthing the most sacred catechism of the modern Democratic Party. The possibility that that it's destructive probably hasn't occurred to him.
@D3legateJimRepublican5mos5MO
He probably is having 25 year old staffers do it and either doesn’t have a firm grasp of his values or does and is on board. What was Ackman thinking here? This is what Ackman has been opposing!
@9CJ6CB65mos5MO
I still find it hard to see how this is considered a problem in any way.
@D3legateJimRepublican5mos5MO
Phillips has been a stubborn opponent of anti-DEI efforts in every other sector of American government and society too.
He's voted against everything from defunding DEI offices in government science agencies to restricting DEI in the airline industry.
@9CJ6CB65mos5MO
@EgalitarianDunbirdGreen5mos5MO
Republicans feel the need to make the right noises about the Bible (even Trump) and Democrats feel the need to make the right noises about the DEI catechism. Trump clearly doesn't mean it. I'd like to believe Phillips doesn't either. Yes, this is wishful thinking.
@VotingAveryRepublican5mos5MO
Oh he gets it. He’s just spouting this for votes of course.
@9CJ6CB65mos5MO
I mean, if it makes him even slightly more inclined to follow it, then okay.
