During the Pennsylvania rally on Saturday, several women agents were seen among the black-suited, sunglass-clad Secret Service members who raced to shield Trump as a gunman opened fire.Despite their bravery, the agents, along with their boss, Kimberly Cheatle, the second-ever female director of the Secret Service, are now under intense scrutiny.
“There should not be any women in the Secret Service. These are supposed to be the very best, and none of the very best at this job are women,” wrote right-wing activist Matt Walsh on X. Republican congressman Tim Burchett tweeted, “I can’t imagine that a DEI hire from @pepsi would be a bad choice as the head of the Secret Service.”
Cheatle, who previously served as director of global security for Pepsi before returning to the Secret Service, has faced criticism over the agency’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) hiring practices. Conservatives argue that these efforts compromise security and disadvantage white men.
The Secret Service has aimed to have 30% women recruits by 2030. “I’m very conscious … of making sure that we need to attract diverse candidates and ensure that we are developing and giving opportunities to everybody in our workforce, and particularly women,” Cheatle told CBS News last year.
The popular conservative account Libs of TikTok cited Cheatle’s interview in a post blaming DEI hiring practices for the Trump shooting, which has garnered over 10 million views on X.
The backlash against DEI practices has been growing, with Ohio Senator J D Vance, Trump’s newly-announced running mate, recently introducing a bill to outlaw DEI efforts nationwide. “DEI is racism, plain and simple. It’s time to outlaw it nationwide, starting with the federal government,” he tweeted.
The Secret Service’s hiring practices faced scrutiny as recently as May, when Congress launched an investigation after a female agent in vice president Kamala Harris’s detail reportedly got into an altercation with colleagues. Concerns were raised about whether staff shortages had led the agency to lower its standards as part of a DEI effort.
In response, Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi stated that employees “are held to the highest professional standards… at no time has the agency lowered these standards.”
Cheatle has dismissed calls for her resignation and the agency has agreed to cooperate with an independent review ordered by President Joe Biden. Biden, who worked with Cheatle when he was vice president, told NBC News that he feels “safe with the Secret Service,” though he acknowledged the need to address the security breach.
Trump, in his first public appearance after the shooting at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, was surrounded by an all-male Secret Service detail. “Now THIS is how you protect a President,” posted conservative commentator Rogan O’Handley on X. “Trump gets the Secret Service A-team now.”
Cheatle is scheduled to appear before a congressional panel on July 22 to address the assassination attempt and the agency’s hiring practices.