'Disparaging and disgusting': Secret Service 'appalled' by 'baseless' MAGA claim

18 July 2024

Since the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Western Pennsylvania on Saturday, July 13, a recurring theme among far-right MAGA Republicans is that DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) is somehow to blame for the attack.

Their argument is that U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle was hired because of her gender and not because she was the best-qualified person for the job. On X, formerly Twitter, MAGA media figure Benny Johnson posted, "Absolute humiliation for this gaggle of female Secret Service Agents….. DEI Secret Service make Presidents LESS Safe." And Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) attacked Cheatle as a "DEI hire."

But the Secret Service is pushing back and calling out such comments as sexist.

Anthony Guglielmi, chief of communication for the Secret Service, told NBC News, "We stand united against any attempt to discredit our personnel and their invaluable contributions to our mission and are appalled by the disparaging and disgusting comments against any of our personnel. As an elite law enforcement agency, all of our agents and officers are highly trained and fully capable of performing our missions."

Guglielmi continued, "It is an insult to the women of our agency to imply that they are unqualified based on gender. Such baseless assertions undermine the professionalism, dedication and expertise of our workforce."

NBC News reporters David Ingram and Curtis Bunn note that "anti-DEI commentators" have "tried to create the impression that female agents were not only too short but somehow less prepared and responsive than their male counterparts."

"At least three female agents were among those protecting Trump in the moments after the shooting, according to videos, and in the days since, their actions have become popular targets of criticism and jokes among conservatives, with several posts on X receiving more than 10 million views," the journalists explain. "The criticisms follow a pattern from other recent news events where conservative pundits and lawmakers, without evidence, cite 'diversity, equity and inclusion' (DEI) programs as a contributing cause in disasters as disparate as the Boeing-made airplane problems or the Baltimore bridge collapse."

Read NBC News' full article at this link.

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