Calls are mounting for Secret Service Chief Kimberly Cheatle to resign after the failed assassination attempt Saturday on former President Donald Trump that many suspect was caused by her “diversity, equity, and inclusion” policies.

Cheatle has been a major proponent of DEI programs. The Secret Service’s website is replete with resources for every variety of group, ranging from the LGBTQ community to women, native Americans, and the disabled. Frequently the federal law enforcement agency’s DEI literature discusses retaining or recruiting individuals from a particular group without any mention of merit or qualifications.

The LGBT DEI page is instructive. It lists three goals, which are at least in part influenced by Biden administration executive orders. Verbatim, these are:

Goal 1 – Identify barriers to recruitment, promotion, and retention of LGBT employees / applicants.

Goal 2 – Review organizational policies and procedures which could potentially inhibit equity in the USSS.

Goal 3 – Create a LGBT Employee Resource Group (ERG) for USSS employees (and allies).

Cheatle has also previously announced sweeping advancement programs for women, which were not tempered with restrictions that such programs would only be available to qualified women. In an interview with CBS, Cheatle was quoted as saying she wanted to have “30% women recruits by 2030.”

The program has come under scrutiny after agents allegedly repeatedly failed to heed warnings from spectators about an armed man climbing a rooftop near where Trump was speaking, failed to neutralize the would-be assassin before he managed to fire off as many as eight shots, and failed to follow established procedure in evacuating Trump.

The consequent perception of incompetence was only heightened by images and videos of short, overweight female agents fumbling with sunglasses and unable to quickly holster their guns. Despite having a female agent standing in front of Trump, her shorter stature left much of Trump’s torso and head completely exposed, which experts say would have been fatal had there been a second shooter present.

Former U.S. Army sniper Rep. Cory Mills (R-FL) called the Secret Service’s handling of the situation “massive negligence,” explaining that the shot should not have gone off, in an interview with Fox.

“I can tell you, under this Biden administration, the one thing I’ve seen is massive DEI hires and I can tell you when you primarily go after DEI, you end up with DIE,” he said.

“The bottom line is this is a massive security breach. This is a huge failure, negligence at best,” said Mills, noting that the investigation needed to determine how a shooter was allowed to get within 200 yards of the president.

“Let us also remember that King Henry the Second went in and said, ‘Can no one rid me of this turbulent priest?’ And his knights went out and killed the Archbishop of Canterbury because they thought that was a direct order,” Mills continued. “What do you say when President Biden says, ‘It’s time to put a target on Trump.’ That, in my opinion, is the inciteful rhetoric – that’s the stuff that they would have went after for the J6 stuff, so why don’t we have our own J13 investigation?”

Social media was full of commentary on the apparent incompetence of some of the agents surrounding Trump.

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“Watching the ladies at work here,” wrote television correspondent Sheryl Attkisson, best known for her two decades with CBS.

“Why are there girl Secret Service agents?” political pundit Ann Coulter tweeted.

Images of female agents appearing to cower while a group of mostly male agents shield the president with their bodies have further compounded this perception.

“This picture says everything you need to know about female cops,” online commentator Leonarda Jonie, who has a following of about 100,000, posted on X. An accompanying image shows male agents covering Trump with their bodies as a female agent crouches and ducks a few feet away in the background.

Cheatle, a former Secret Service agent, returned to the agency after a brief stint at Pepsi. However, her appointment raised clouds of controversy after revelations that thousands of agency texts related to the events of January 6, 2021, had been deleted during an alleged “data migration.”

Some came to Cheatle’s defense.

“Please join me in defending Kim Cheatle (a nearly 30-year veteran of the US Secret Service) against the horde of fascists attacking her credentials,” Jackie Singh, a former Biden administration cyber official, tweeted.

Others chose to stand up for the female agents whose performance was being criticized.

“I see people attacking the women secret service agents that guard Trump. I know women that are clearly good at what they do. It’s unfair to criticize them. They did the job yesterday getting him out of danger. Leave the female secret service agents alone,” X user @N76247476Man wrote.

Meanwhile, the wheels of Congress have begun turning as public support grows for an investigation into these events.

“Congress will do a full investigation of the tragedy yesterday to determine where there were lapses in security and anything else that the American people need to know and deserve to know,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said on Sunday in an appearance on the TODAY show. “But in the meantime, we’ve got to turn the rhetoric down. We’ve got to turn the temperature down in this country.”

Has a House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer has summoned Cheatle to testify at a congressional hearing on July 22.

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