JD Vance blasts CBS for ‘harassing’ his mother-in-law over DEI differences

Vice President JD Vance blasted CBS News for “harassing” his mother-in-law, and his comments were included in the outlet’s own report.

Vance called out the attempt to use the mother of Second Lady Usha Vance in a piece attacking President Donald Trump over diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies.

The story headlined, “She advanced DEI at her university. Her son-in-law, Vice President JD Vance, wants to end it nationwide,” focused on Lakshmi Chilukuri, the vice president’s mother-in-law and currently the provost of the University of California San Diego’s Sixth College.

“Chilukuri helped create a pilot course on race, ethnicity and gender in biology and medicine, served on the university’s biological sciences diversity committee, and has written proudly of her school’s commitment to diversity,” read the report by CBS News reporters Graham Kates and Daniel Klaidman.

“A crackdown on what President Trump and Vance call ‘wokeness’ has been a hallmark of their administration’s first weeks,” the article continued. “Widespread scalebacks of DEI programs in academia, government and across corporations have marked some of the administration’s earliest marquee victories.”

The piece stated that the Trump administration “has attacked DEI on college campuses with particular zeal, threatening investigations, lawsuits and canceled federal funding,” adding that Vance “has been vocal about combatting DEI.”

But when he was asked to comment for the piece, Vance gave the reporters a deserved rebuke which, to their credit, they included in the piece.

“I don’t like DEI, and I’m proud of what our administration has done on that front,” he told CBS News.

“But I love my mother-in-law. If she doesn’t share my views on DEI, I suppose I’ll have to do what 99 percent of Americans do when confronted with a family member who doesn’t always agree with them: get over it,” the vice president continued. “I’ll choose instead to focus on her kindness and the fact that she’s an incredible mother and loving grandmother to the most important people in my life.”

“This story exists because CBS has decided that harassing my mother-in-law is a reasonable price in order to attack President Trump,” Vance said.

Kates and Klaidman noted in their report that CBS’s own parent company has moved away from DEI initiatives.

“Many corporations have followed suit, including CBS News’ parent company Paramount, which in late February ceased using hiring goals related to race, ethnicity, sex or gender, among other policy changes related to DEI,” they wrote.

Social media users applauded Vance.

He is such a class act — a grown up.

— MRFord (@BeansAngelKitty) March 13, 2025

Once again the conservative shows he is more than capable of having family members with different opinions, and the left shows they are intolerant by highlighting this as something that should be fundamentally fractious in their relationship …

Kind of tells you the whole story

— Libertarian LaXer (@mdrn_cnservativ) March 13, 2025

vance is right to blast cbs

digging into his mother-in-law’s dei stance to smear trump is low-rent journalism

family’s off-limits, clowns

— PolArt Official (@PolArtOfficial) March 12, 2025

he has a way with words that politely says “in your face”

— Mike Leigh Torres (@MikeLeighTorres) March 13, 2025

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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida where she has been writing for the BizPacReview team since 2015.

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