By The shooting of Donald Trump over the past weekend left many people asking how the Secret Service would be so incompetent as to allow a shooter on a roof so close to the former president.
Republican Congressman Tim Burchett immediately slammed the head of the Secret Service, calling the head of the Secret Service, Kim Cheatle, a “diversity” hire and blaming her push to recruit more female agents for the security failings around the attempted assassination of Donald Trump.
Burchett pointed the finger at the Secret Service’s adoption of “DEI,” the acronym that stands for “diversity, equity and inclusion.”
“Somebody really dropped the ball. You’ve got a DEI person, a DEI initiative person who heads up our Secret Service,” the representative for Tennessee told Fox News.
“You know she was working at Pepsi before this. I know she was a former CIA Secret Service agent, but still, this is what happens when you don’t put the best players in.”
Now, an investigation into how Cheatle got the post in the first place has revealed that the embattled director of the Secret Service received a significant boost from First Lady Jill Biden.
The New York Post reports:
Cheatle, 53, is the first woman to lead the presidential protection agency and secured the non-Senate-confirmed role in August 2022 after a three-year stint as senior director of global security at PepsiCo. Before that, she had served 27 years in the Secret Service, beginning in the Clinton administration.
Four sources close to President Biden’s family, including people who interacted with Cheatle during the Obama-Biden administration, said she was well liked by the future first lady and her most senior aides, including top adviser Anthony Bernal.
“Cheatle served on Dr. Biden’s second lady detail and Anthony pushed for her,” a Democratic insider told The Post. “Anthony has no national security or law enforcement experience. He should have no influence over the selection of the USSS director.”
Bernal, 51, is widely regarded as rivaling even White House chief of staff Jeff Zients in terms of influence over administration decisions. He has faced allegations of bullying and sexual harassment from colleagues who have likened his sway to that of Russian mystic Grigori Rasputin over the Romanov court.
Jill Biden has received criticism recently for appearing to be the one in charge as her husband’s mental cognition has clearly declined. Maybe that’s why the USSS director isn’t worried about her job.
Despite her massive failure, Cheatle has refused to even consider stepping down as leader of the Secret Service and has received “100 percent confidence” from Joe Biden.
JUST IN: USSS Director Kimberly Cheatle is refusing to step down after a U.S. president was nearly assas*inated under her watch.
Utter insanity.
Cheatle said the “buck stops with me” but then blamed local authorities for not securing the building where Crooks shot from.
“In… pic.twitter.com/GUP93mHi1Z
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) July 15, 2024
Cheatle has so far refused to comment on whether or not her DEI push could have placed Donald Trump in more danger than needed. Images captured during the initial chaos of the shooting indicated that female agents, who were considerably shorter than the 6′ 3″ Trump, had difficulty ensuring his adequate protection. The footage showed them struggling to escort him to a secure vehicle. Additionally, the video revealed agents experiencing challenges in holstering their weapons effectively. This highlighted the complications in managing such a high-pressure situation.
This is why the notion that men and women are the same is just absurd.
You need to be taller than the candidate to protect them with your body. Why do they have these short women (one who can’t holster a gun apparently) guarding Trump?
This is embarrassing and dangerous. https://t.co/s0QmW9MPiy
— Meghan McCain (@MeghanMcCain) July 14, 2024
The First Lady has been near the center of the Trump shooting since late Saturday night and the revelations about her relationship with the leader of the Secret Service will only raise more eyebrows.
According to reports, Secret Service resources were redirected from Trump’s event last Saturday to Jill Biden’s due to adherence to agency protocol for former presidents. Trump’s Secret Service detail was lessened because the agency decided to send more agents to protect the First Lady, who was also campaigning in Pennsylvania.
Susan Crabtree from RealClearPolitics reported that “there were also many supplemental agents from different field officers (not Trump’s regular detail) providing security at the rally because Trump’s regular detail has been overworked (some working seven days straight), and only two counter-snipers…”
The Secret Service has pushed back against the accusations. Anthony Guglielmi, the Secret Service’s chief communications officer, responded to Crabtree, writing, “As far as ‘field office teams, ‘ these are the candidate nominee operations teams that are added during election years for the heavy travel tempo.”
For his part, during an interview with Lester Holt, it became rather clear that the president did not know who his director of the Secret Service is in the first place.
LESTER HOLT: “Is it acceptable that you have still not heard—at least publicly—from the Secret Service director?”
BIDEN: “Oh, I’ve heard from him!”
Kimberly Cheatle is The Secret Service Director. A woman. Appointed by Biden.
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) July 16, 2024
[Read More: Democrats Become Resigned To Their Fate]
