Blame is being criticized left and right for the shooting at Donald Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, which left the former president injured and a supporter dead.
Some have blamed the Democrats’ rhetoric for fueling partisan tensions; conspiracy theorists baselessly suggest that the incident was staged by Trump himself; and a growing group, especially on the right, is focusing on Secret Service failures and its supposed prioritization of “DEI” – the acronym for initiatives that promote diversity, equity and inclusion, which Republicans opposed in between federal agencies, schools and other organizationslike this at the state level.
Footage focusing on female agents on Trump’s security team quickly gained traction on social media, along with recirculated clips from a 2023 CBS report that repeated the Secret Service’s goal of increasing representation of women to 30% by 2030.
“DEI killed someone”, the inflammatory account Libs of TikTok said in one post on X this was seen by millions.
In retweets and replies, billionaires Elon Musk and Bill Ackman – who each announced his support for Trump after the assassination attempt — apparently buying into the narrative that “diversity hiring” was to blame for the security failures that led to the shooting.
Meghan McCain, daughter of former Republican Party presidential candidate John McCain, shared a post by right-wing commentator Matt Walsh, who said: “There should be no women in the Secret Service. These are supposed to be the best, and none of the best at this job are women.”
“Someone really dropped the ball,” said Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) in a interview on Fox News on Sunday. “You have a DEI — basically a DEI initiative person who heads our Secret Service,” he said. “That’s what happens when you don’t put the best players in.”
Here’s what you should know about the history — and growing controversy — of women at the agency tasked with protecting America’s top officials.
A Brief History of Women in the Secret Service
Kimberly Cheatle, who was named the director of President Joe Biden’s Secret Service in 2022, is the second female head of the agency. Although critics, including Representative Burchett It is MuskPoking fun at her recent experience working for the corporation PepsiCo, Cheatle rose through the ranks of the Secret Service over a career spanning more than two decades, which included being the first female assistant director of protective operations.
And although Cheatle has strongly advocated for more women to enter the security industry, the Secret Service welcomed women for more than 50 years before she took the helm.
Cheating said Security Magazine in 2022 that she had placed on her desk a photo of the first five female special agents, who were inaugurated in 1971, “to remind myself that these women created opportunities for me and that I can help others grow and lead too.” (The first female Executive Protective Service officer was sworn in in 1970.)
According to the Secret ServiceAt the time the first female agents were hired, they were “expected to do everything men do” – including hand-to-hand combat, marksmanship, first aid, and more – “and receive equal pay.”
A Recruitment Flyer 2021 states: “Adopting a diverse and inclusive workforce allows the Secret Service to be more responsive and better prepared to confront the growing security threats facing our nation’s leaders, financial systems, and critical infrastructure.”
Today, as has been the case for years, all Secret Service agents must comply with the same basic qualifications and are subject to rigorous training, although women are held to lower standards than men for physical fitness assessments.
In April 2021, before Cheatle was named director, women outnumbered men for the first time in the special agent training class. Still, women represent only 24% of the agency’s total workforce of more than 7,500 employees.
Recent controversy surrounding the Secret Service
The notoriously male-dominated Secret Service has faced years of criticism under both male and female leadership, not just from repeated security breaches but also for a series of alleged misconduct and scandals, including harassment It is attack female colleagues, hiring prostitutes, attacking minorsIt is driving drunk.
While security lapses continued to make headlines In recent years, the GOP-led House Oversight and Accountability Committee first questioned the role of “DEI” in the agency in May, following an incident at Joint Base Andrews in April that led to the removal of an agent from her duties as part of Vice President Kamala Harris’s detail. The Secret Service said the agent, identified in media reports as Michelle Herczeg, exhibited “behavior that her colleagues found distressing” and attributed it to a “medical matter.” Conservative media outlets highlighted Herczeg’s record of filing a gender discrimination lawsuit (which was later dismissed) against the city of Dallas, where she was previously a police officer.
“How Herczeg rose to the role of vice president after such experience is an open question, as the security of the president and those in his orbit are expected to have impeccable backgrounds and years of experience,” says an op-ed at the National Review. “It’s fair to ask whether the Secret Service joining the 30×30 initiativeThe promise that women would make up 30 percent of all law enforcement officers by 2030 could have forced Herczeg’s qualifications, given that his record was below the level expected of male officers.”
AND RealClear Policy reported: “After the bizarre altercation at Andrews, Secret Service agents and officers began to privately question whether the agency had adequately vetted Herczeg’s background and whether she met the same rigorous physical and mental training requirements that the agency previously imposed on her. other agents to qualify for a vice-presidential protective detail.
In response to House Oversight questioning, Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said in a declaration: “U.S. Secret Service employees, whose work is vital to the continuity of government, are held to the highest professional standards. At no point did the agency lower these standards.”
What’s next for the Secret Service
Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) published a letter on Saturday night, formally inviting Cheatle to testify before the oversight committee, which he chairs, at a July 22 hearing.
“I thank the courageous members of the Secret Service who put their lives on the line to protect President Trump,” said Comer wrote on Xadding that “many questions remain and Americans demand answers.”
The Secret Service, which is still investigating the shooting, has so far denied two specific allegations: that the agency refused requests for more security resources ahead of the rally, which spokesman Guglielmi called “absolutely false”; and that this diverted resources from Trump’s event to one attended by First Lady Jill Biden.
President Biden he said that he also called for an “independent review of national security” at the rally in Pennsylvania, as well as asking Cheatle to “review all security measures” for the Republican National Convention, which takes place this week in Wisconsin.
The Secret Service he said is confident in its security measures for the convention, which have been in the works for 18 months, and has no plans to change course.
This story originally appeared on Time.com read the full story
