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The dust has barely settled following Tuesday’s surprise resignation announcement by U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle as ongoing investigations ramp up, exploring the colossal security failings at a campaign rally for former President Trump on July 13.
The beleaguered presidential appointee was seemingly successful in uniting our political divisions as politicians from both major political parties clamored for her removal in the wake of a near-miss assassination attempt that left one man dead and two others seriously wounded.
To witness Cheatle’s mechanical testimony in front of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability on Monday was an exercise in frustration and futility. What little empathy she might have wrung out of the grilling was mitigated by her steadfast refusal to answer basic questions – topics she had previously addressed during media appearances. Her underwhelming responses portend increased scrutiny for a discreet agency suddenly thrust into the national spotlight.
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, the day before her resignation, testifying before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee on Capitol Hill, July 22, 2024. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
The colossal failure of her agency during the near-miss assassination attempt on Trump a little over a week ago was captured by news cameras and rally attendees’ cellphones. How an untrained 20-year-old could access a rooftop some 130 yards away from a former president and current candidate for the office is baffling and the subject of an internal Secret Service review, an FBI investigation, and an independent inquiry announced by President Biden.
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Exhaustive government reviews can take months to complete. Meanwhile, Congress and the American public continue to demand answers that do not appear to be forthcoming.
Concurrently, images of some undersized female agents clumsily fumbling with their sidearms during the attack in Butler, Pennsylvania, and reports that Cheatle may have won the position via support from Jill Biden during the director selection process have led to claims that assignments and advancements due to DEI may be at play here.
Cheatle’s LinkedIn profile spans her 26-year Secret Service career and highlights senior-level positions within the agency. Yet her mishandling of the deserved scrutiny for the security failings before and during the assassination attempt makes one wonder how she could have been the best available candidate for the Service’s top position.
At Monday’s hearing, Rep. Glenn Grothman, R-Wis., directly questioned Cheatle regarding the 30×30 initiative and the Service’s becoming a signatory during her tenure at its helm. This DEI-inspired pledge aims to increase female representation in federal law enforcement agencies 30% by 2030. Curiously, Cheatle denied advocating for the Secret Service to be comprised by one-third female agents, a goal also promoted by her boss, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
The Secret Service is joined as signatories on the 30×30 pledge that was championed by the advocacy group Women in Federal Law Enforcement (WIFLE) by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, FBI, IRS Criminal Investigations Division, U.S. Capitol Police, Customs and Border Protection, Marshals Service, Diplomatic Security Service, National Park Service, DEA, et al.
Imagine the abundant courage required of any senior executive at the aforementioned agencies to stand up and suggest it is wrong to target and reward candidates for selection or promotion as a result of immutable characteristics and not capabilities, aptitude, and performance. Good luck during their next performance evaluation – they have committed the equivalent of professional suicide.
Thus, worship at the unholy altar of DEI has become de rigueur within federal law enforcement’s senior executive ranks. I know, having once been member of club. These days, best to remain tight-lipped about artificial, unjust and unfair recruitment and promotion policies.
These seemingly illegal and counterproductive preferences are currently under assail from critics like Christopher Rufo, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and contributing editor for City Journal, who remains an outspoken critic of DEI practices. He has written blistering exposes related to the progressive movement to void the principles of meritocracy and instead deploy certain race or gender features as qualifications.
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Rufo referred to the post-assassination-attempt Secret Service as “compromised” and points out the agency proudly acknowledges that it “prioritizes recruiting women candidates” and created policy – an “affirmative action” plan – that aggressively targets female, LQBT and other identity groups for recruitment and retention.
Which brings us back to the narrow miss of an assassin’s bullet in Butler, Pennsylvania, and the blunder that appears in not securing a gently-sloped rooftop. Were DEI preferences at play there?
Did an agency with 24% of its ranks comprised of females, striving mightily to increase that number to 30%, allow a quota mindset to drive decisions that should be predicated solely on capabilities and competence? Were more female agents assigned to Trump’s protection detail with these considerations in mind?
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Was it wholly shocking that following the rally’s security blunder, Trump enters Republican National Convention venue in Milwaukee less than week later, flanked by a detail of tall, burly, ruggedly fit male agents? Gives one pause.
If women and men are truly equal in all regards, why then does the Secret Service (and all federal law enforcement agencies) continue to enforce drastically different physical fitness standards? Assignments to one of the presidential protection details requires agents to physically reposition a protectee and confront an attacker – or counter-assault team members scale buildings to gain access to counter-sniper perches while laden with heavy gear and equipment, so why then separate fitness standards? This remains a dangerous policy and degrades public safety.
Of course, some will purposely twist my words and sense this an attack on female federal agents. Untrue. I served with plenty of outstanding female FBI (and Secret Service) special agents. Yet agencies like the Secret Service and FBI are disingenuous when they proudly sign onto 30×30 pledge and WIFLE’s assertions that “the under-representation of women in policing undermines public safety.”
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The FBI announced this aim serves “to improve public safety, community outcomes, and trust in law enforcement.” These initiatives actually degrade public safety and erode public trust.
Let’s hope that in Washington, D.C. – where accountability remains in short supply – rigorous and thorough investigations will determine just how DEI policies may have played a role in the glaring security breach during the Trump assassination attempt. We will also pay keen attention as the Biden administration now sets out to appoint a Secret Service director to replace Cheatle.