Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle is under pressure to retire after the attempted assasination of former president Donald Trump.
The director has been criticized for focusing on diversity, equality and inclusion in her hiring policies instead of choosing the best person for the job based on merit and capability.
Cheatle had earlier declared that 30% of the recruits would be female and ‘diverse’.
Cheatle was selected by President Joe Biden in 2022.
Former FBI assistant director Chris Swecker told Fox News that the entire Trump shooting incident reflected poorly on the Secret Service.
Security breakdown
”It was a total security breakdown from start to finish. From the total security plan for the rally to the reaction once the shots rang out. Imagine if the shooter hadn’t been this kid but a well-trained cell? Our enemies are looking at us thinking we can take Trump or anyone out now without a problem,” said Swecker.
Swecker said what he saw was DEI, [diversy, equality and inclusion] in the Secret Service team, which included three women.
“And I am not anti-woman. I have three daughters and three granddaughters, and they’d make great Secret Service agents,” he said.
Another ex FBI top agent told The New York Post that the Secret Service has been in decline for years and part of it was because of all the diversity hires.
“I’m a huge fan of the Secret Service, but what you saw out there … was abysmal. How they weren’t better organized I will never know,” he said. “They were fooling around once the shooting started. … I teach this stuff these days. You grab ’em and go. You don’t fool around,” he said.
Resignation calls ‘not fair’
But not everyone feels the same. Former Secret Service agent Don Mihalek said that these calls for Cheatle to resign were premature and not fair.
“The Secret Service security plan is done with local and state police departments, and even though [the Secret Service] will probably take the blame for all this, we just don’t know what happened. Local and state cops take care of the outside perimeters. We are hearing that one police officer confronted the shooter and then backed off and fell off the roof. We have videos of people at the rally telling police they saw something. We don’t know what happened with that.”
Elon Musk also tweeted on X saying that it was shocking how the Secret Service had botched things up. He reposted a tweet from right wing activist Jack Posobiec who had questioned;
“How was a sniper with a full rifle kit allowed to bear crawl onto the closest roof to a presidential nominee?”
“Extreme incompetence or it was deliberate,” Musk wrote. “Either way, the SS leadership must resign.”
A petition has been started calling for Cheatle’s resignation for her supposedly woke belief system.