Washington:
The head of US homeland security reacted on Saturday to misogynistic attacks against female Secret Service agents who threw themselves into the line of fire to protect Donald Trump from a would-be assassin.
“These claims are baseless and insulting,” Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement after some on the US political right accused the Secret Service of “woke” hiring practices that they say nearly killed the former president.
He praised the “highly qualified and trained” women serving at all levels of law enforcement across the country for risking “their lives on the front lines for the safety and security of others.”
“They are courageous and selfless patriots who deserve our gratitude and respect,” he wrote.
The Department of Homeland Security will “with great pride, focus and devotion to the mission, continue to recruit, retain and elevate women in our law enforcement ranks. Our Department will be better for it and our country safer,” he continued .
In the week since a gunman opened fire during a Trump rally in Pennsylvania, killing one spectator, wounding two others and leaving the Republican bloodied but alive, the right has unleashed a torrent of criticism of the Secret Service for having women in its ranks.
Several women can be seen among the agents in black suits and sunglasses who rush to shield Trump with their bodies as gunshots ring out at the rally, before pushing him from the stage to a waiting car and security.
But they, along with their boss Kimberly Cheatle — only the second female director of the federal agency charged with protecting current, former and future presidents — are now caught up in intense scrutiny over the near-catastrophic attack.
“There should be no women in the Secret Service. These should be the best, and none of the best at this job are women,” wrote right-wing activist Matt Walsh on X, in a typical post.
Many of the attacks cited DEI — diversity, equity and inclusion — hiring practices that some Republicans have long criticized as discriminatory against white people, particularly white men.
“The DEI results. DEI killed someone,” read a post on the popular Libs of TikTok account.
The Secret Service has defended itself against such accusations in the past, with a spokesman telling US media outlets just weeks before the assassination attempt that agents “are held to the highest professional standards…in At no point did the agency lower these standards.”
(Except the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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