A Republican congressman has called the U.S. Secret Service chief a “diversity hire” as he blamed a drive to recruit more female agents for security failings around the attempted assassination of Donald Trump. The Telegraph has more.
Tim Burchett pointed the finger at Kimberly Cheatle, who wants more non-white and female agents but is now facing calls to resign as Director of the Secret Service.
The agency has the goal of increasing the number of women to 30% by 2030, but critics claim females make less effective agents than men.
Right-wing commentators have zeroed in on widely shared online footage of a female agent’s apparent struggles to holster her weapon after the shooting in Pennsylvania on Saturday.
Others claimed the female agents in the Presidential candidate’s security detail were too short to properly shield Mr. Trump, who is 6ft 3in tall.
Mr. Burchett singled out the Secret Service’s adoption of “DEI” – an acronym for diversity, equity and inclusion.
“Somebody really dropped the ball. You’ve got a DEI person, a DEI initiative person who heads up our Secret Service,” the representative for Tennessee told Fox News.
“You know she was working at Pepsi before this. I know she was a former CIA Secret Service agent, but still, this is what happens when you don’t put the best players in.”
Ms. Cheatle was an agent for 27 years, rising through the ranks, before she joined the soft drinks company as head of security.
She returned to the Secret Service to be appointed the agency’s second ever female chief by Joe Biden in 2022, having been the first female Assistant Director of Protective Operations earlier in her career.
“I’m very conscious, as I sit in this chair now, of making sure that we need to attract diverse candidates, ensure that we are developing opportunities for everybody in our workforce, and particularly women,” she told CBS in an interview last year.
Ms. Cheatle has faced calls for her resignation from, among others, former House speaker Newt Gingrich and billionaire Trump supporter Elon Musk, who claimed her last job was guarding “bags of Cheetos”.
Meghan McCain, the daughter of former Presidential nominee John, said on X: “You need to be taller than the candidate to protect them with your body. Why do they have these short women (one who can’t holster a gun apparently) guarding Trump?”
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