DHS Officials Defend Women in Law Enforcement After Trump Assassination Attempt

Former President Donald Trump with blood on his face surrounded by secret service agents as he is taken off the stage at a campaign event at Butler Farm Show Inc. in Butler, Pa., on July 13, 2024. Rebecca Droke/AFP via Getty Images

Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, alongside other senior officials and agency leaders, have issued a joint statement firmly defending female Secret Service agents during the July 13 assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.

“In the days following the attempted assassination of former President Trump, some people have made public statements questioning the presence of women in law enforcement, including in the United States Secret Service,” reads the July 20 statement. “These assertions are baseless and insulting.”

Besides Mr. Mayorkas, the statement was endorsed by 10 other senior Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials, including Kimberly Cheatle, director of the U.S. Secret Service, who will appear Monday on Capitol Hill to answer questions about the assassination attempt.

The attempted assassination of former President Trump has raised questions about how 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks managed to position himself on a rooftop with a clear line of sight to the former president, whose ear was injured by a bullet.

The shooting brought the Secret Service director’s stated interest in hiring more women into the spotlight.

“I’m very conscious, as I sit in this chair now, of making sure that we need to attract diverse candidates, ensure that we are developing opportunities for everybody in our workforce, and particularly women,” Ms. Cheatle told CBS News in an interview last year.

An array of commentators, including some Republican lawmakers, focused explicitly on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies at the Secret Service, claiming that such programs have undermined its mission.

“Under Director Cheatle’s failed leadership, the United States Secret Service has prioritized woke DEI policies over the core responsibilities of the Secret Service, including protecting our nation’s leaders,” Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) said in a statement, while introducing a bill to hold Ms. Cheatle accountable for allowing the gunman to fire off several shots—including one that grazed former President Trump’s ear—before being killed by police snipers.

Ms. Boebert’s bill would prohibit “any federal funds from being used to pay the salary or expenses” of Ms. Cheatle.

Earlier in the week, the Secret Service’s chief of communication, Anthony Guglielmi, called out the “baseless assertions” that agents are unqualified.

“As an elite law enforcement agency, all of our agents and officers are highly trained and fully capable of performing our missions,” Mr. Guglielmi said in a statement provided to some news outlets. “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.”

The Saturday statement from Mr. Mayorkas and other top DHS officials appeared to focus most acutely on the line of criticism against women being on the front lines in the Secret Service.

“Every single day, in communities big and small across our great country, women are serving in federal, state, local, tribal, territorial, and campus law enforcement,” the joint statement reads. “They are highly trained and skilled professionals, who risk 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.”

Mr. Mayorkas and the other officials added that DHS will continue to recruit, retain, and elevate women in our law enforcement ranks and take “great pride” in doing so.

“Our Department will be the better for it, and our country more secure,” the statement said.

Former President Trump has thanked the agents who were at the rally and praised members of the security team.

“They did a fantastic job,” he told the New York Post on Sunday. “It’s surreal for all of us.”

The former president’s son, Eric Trump, went further, offering praise for the female agents in particular.

“I know all those agents on stage and they’re the greatest people ever,” Eric Trump told MSNBC on July 16. “The female that’s in the picture, she was with me for a very long time and she’s one of the greatest human beings you would ever meet.”

Besides injuring former President Trump, the gunman critically wounded two men and killed one.