Leigh Tauss is a newswriter for Raw Story based in Raleigh, N.C. Her work has been picked up by the Associated Press and has appeared in The Washington Post and The Daily Beast, among other outlets.
Before joining Raw Story, Tauss worked as an editor for the Bangor Daily News, a senior staff writer at INDY Week and a reporter for the Meriden Record-Journal. Her writing has received numerous awards from the the North Carolina Press Association, the Green Eyeshade Awards, the Connecticut Society of Professional Journalists and the Association of Alternative Newsmedia.
“You want to talk about DEI ? You came on and you were supposed to be the hillbilly translator which was something that was sorely lacking on national TV and in the movies,” Navarro said during a CNN panel discussion Monday. “We’re going to talk about hiring somebody because what they represent and the color of their skin and where they come from? Let's start with J.D. Vance.”
Vance first came into the public eye as the author of “Hillbilly elegy,” a best-selling coming-of-age memoir about his family in rural Kentucky (though Vance spent most of his childhood growing up in suburban Ohio). The novel was parlayed into a Netflix film, which Vance capitalized on with a successful Senate run in 2022.
“It’s very funny when I hear J.D. Vance talk about Kamala Harris as a DEI hire, because I think he got a book deal, I think he got a TV contract, I think he got a move deal because he’s a DEI hire,” Navarro said during a brutal takedown.
Her comments come as controversies pile onto Donald Trump’s running mate, from old comments deriding Democratic leaders as ‘single cat ladies’ to newly shared emails showing Vance has flipped his opinion on issues since adopting a MAGA persona.
“I’m kind of marveling at the lack of vetting that seems to have gone on in the Trump campaign which had a ton of time to pick their vice president,” Navarro said. “I'm just amazed at all of the things that came out”
