In right-wing circles, a discriminatory idea emerged about how the Secret Service may have allowed for a burial security failure in the hours following the attempted assassination of former president Donald Trump: It was the fault of ignorant women in his security detail.
” Appear, I’m not sure about who the people are on the specific detail, Secret Service, but I can tell you under this Biden administration, the one thing I’ve seen is huge La recruits”, Rep. Cory Mills, R-Fla., said on Fox News, referring to diversity, equity and inclusion techniques.
” And I can tell you when you mostly, when you generally come after D-E-I”, Mills continued, “you end up with D-I-E”.
Benny Johnson, a right-wing pundit, was more blunt in a social media post viewed nearly 9 million times:” Total shame for this bunch of feminine Secret Service Agents”, he wrote in a blog that showed the turbulent aftereffects of the shooting, adding:” DE I Secret Service make Presidents LESS Safe”.
These critics pointed out a trio of agents who were clearly more male than their peers and who were clearly visible as shorter than their peers as they put themselves in harm’s way to protect the former president. Conservatives have voiced outrage over the agency’s failings on its women, suggesting they were only hired to diversify the predominately male organization. A video of their movements, including a moment in which one clearly struggled to holster a weapon, has fueled an outcry.
The agency is led by Kimberly Cheatle, the second woman to serve as its director.
The Secret Service is under investigation for how agents defended the location of the campaign rally and ultimately handled the shooting, which resulted in Trump being injured, a rally attendee being killed, and two other people being seriously hurt. The agency has been plagued by debauchery, reckless behavior, and security failures in recent years, and this is its most recent and most significant episode.
No proof has been found to support the claim that any female agent in Trump’s detail’s response, whose members shielded his body with their own after shots were fired, contributed to or contributed to the security breakdown.
But the fixation on the few who surrounded Trump at the rally on Saturday reflects a larger issue among some conservatives, who claim that policies that promote diversity in hiring are inherently unfair and destructive and even dangerous when applied to organizations like the military and law enforcement.
The agency lowered its testing standards for them, and that women should n’t be able to serve in the agency at all were among the suggestions made by those who blamed female Secret Service agents for Saturday’s attack.
” I ca n’t imagine that a DEI hire from @pepsi would be a bad choice as the head of the Secret Service”, Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., wrote in an apparently sarcastic post on social media. After working for 27 years in the Secret Service, Cookett transitioned to PepsiCo as senior director of global security.
Conservatives have long argued that codified diversity initiatives detract from organizations ‘ main objectives and promote left-wing ideas about race and gender. Legislation that would eliminate such initiatives at the Pentagon and other government agencies has been passed by the GOP-led House on numerous occasions.
” A woke military is a weak military”, is a common refrain among right-wing lawmakers.
Cheatle has made unfiltered comments about her efforts to recruit more women into the service, in part to combat issues with recruitment and retention.
In her first interview with CBS News, Cheatle said,” I’m very conscious of making sure we need to attract diverse candidates and ensure that we are developing and giving opportunities to everyone in our workforce, especially women.”
According to the news report, the organization’s goal is for recruiters to be women in 30 % by 2030. They currently make up just under one-fourth of the Secret Service’s workforce, according to its website.
In the days following the shooting, the YouTube video of that interview became overpopulated with comments suggesting neither Cheatle nor the women the agency has hired since are qualified for their jobs.
The discussion of whether women should be in a protective detail, according to Kym Craven, executive director of the National Association of Women Law Enforcement Executives, was a diversion from the significant security concerns raised by the assassination attempt.
” We’ve had critical incidents for centuries with men leading, and there’s never been a question that because of their gender they should n’t lead”, Craven said in an interview.
” The incident itself will be under review, and the incident will stand for itself”, she continued. Whether adjustments were necessary, mistakes made, or anything else is up for me to judge in any way. However, the discussion about gender and whether or not a woman should not lead an agency should not take place.
According to Craven, women who work in law enforcement organizations are expected to adhere to the same physical rigor and fitness requirements that men are expected to.
There is n’t a female leader in this field that I know of who wants to see the standards be lowered or the exceptions made for women, she said.
In 2012, Melanie Burkholder protected political candidates on the campaign trail, including Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, after spending six years as a secret service special agent.
According to Burkholder, the debate over whether women could work for the agency was “ridiculous,” noting that the first female protective agents were sworn in to the Secret Service in 1971.
It’s ridiculous in my opinion to be having a conversation about whether women add value, whether women perform, or whatever the question is at this time, she said.
A Secret Service spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.
Trump was flanked by what appeared to be an all-male phalanx of Secret Service agents when he walked onto the floor of the Republican National Convention on Monday night in Milwaukee for his first public appearance since the shooting at his rally.
