US Secretary of State Responds to Attacks on Female Secret Service Agents

The head of US Homeland Security responded Saturday to misogynistic attacks on female Secret Service agents who threw themselves into the firing line to protect Donald Trump from a would-be assassin.

“These allegations are baseless and insulting,” Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement after some on the American political right accused the Secret Service of “woke” hiring practices that they said nearly led to the former president’s death.

Mayorkas praised the “highly qualified and trained” women who serve in law enforcement across the country for “putting their lives on the front lines for the safety and security of others.”

“They are brave and selfless patriots who deserve our gratitude and respect,” he wrote.

The Department of Homeland Security will “continue to recruit, retain and promote women in our law enforcement ranks with great pride,” he continued.

It’s been a week since a gunman opened fire at a Trump rally in Pennsylvania, killing one bystander, wounding two others and leaving the Republican bleeding but alive.

Several women were seen among the Secret Service agents rushing to shield Trump with their bodies as gunshots rang out.

But they, along with their boss Kimberly Cheatle — only the second female director of the federal agency charged with protecting current, former and future presidents — are now under close scrutiny over the near-catastrophic attack.

“There should be no women in the Secret Service. They should be the best of the best, and none of the best of the best in this job are women,” right-wing activist Matt Walsh wrote on X, in a typical far-right post.

Many of the attacks referenced DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion), a hiring policy that some Republicans have long criticized as discriminatory against white people, particularly white men.

“The results of DEI. DEI cost someone their life,” reads a post on the popular Libs of TikTok account.

The Secret Service has defended itself against such allegations in the past. A spokesman told U.S. media a few weeks before the assassination attempt that agents “are held to the highest professional standards… the service has never lowered those standards.”

Cheatle, who has so far ignored calls to resign, is due to appear before Congress on July 22 for a hearing on the attempted assassination.

The Secret Service has also agreed to an independent investigation ordered by President Joe Biden.

Not everyone on the right supported the criticism.

“I saw two women, one had a gun in her hand and the other had her body wrapped around him,” Chris LaCivita, Trump’s top adviser, told CNN reporter Kate Sullivan, in a message posted on X.

She said he went on to say, “I know this: A swarm of Secret Service agents put their lives on the line and put their bodies between President Trump and the bullets. Anyone who said anything different about those people on the stage is an idiot.”

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