FACT-CHECK: Female Secret Service Applicants Are NOT Held to ‘Same Standards’ as Men - Did Cheatle Perjure Herself?
by Jack Montgomery, The National Pulse.com, July 24, 2024
The possible contribution of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) to U.S. Secret Service (USSS) failures during the assassination attempt against Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, was raised during now-former Director Kim Cheatle’s grilling by the House Oversight Committee on Monday.
Some Republican lawmakers questioned why female agents too small to cover Trump, who is well over six feet tall, were assigned to him. Cheatle and several Democratic lawmakers doggedly insisted men and women in the USSS meet the “same standards.”
“One of your goals in the [USSS] strategic plan is to champion Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and accessibility—you’ve accomplished the ‘accessibility’ part,” said Republican Rep. Michael Cloud, in sarcastic reference to gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks having easy access to President Trump when he shot him.
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“Do you keep the same standards for all applicants?” he continued. “Does every Secret Service agent meet the same qualifications, or do you have different standards for different people?”
“Yes, sir, everyone who moves through the application process has to meet the same standards to become a special agent,” Cheatle claimed.
Later in the hearing, Cheatle told Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a black woman, that the “incident on the 13th has nothing to do with DEI.”
Rep. Ayanna Pressley, also a black woman, later claimed women in the Secret Service “are held to the standards as their male counterparts.”
This is not the case. The Secret Service’s ‘Become a Special Agent’ brochure explicitly states that the physical excellence standards for women recruits are significantly lower than the physical standards men must meet:
COMMITTED TO DIVERSITY.
In a section of the brochure titled ‘Committed to Diversity,’ the Secret Service states that “Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) is a fundamental right of all employees and applicants for employment to compete on a fair and level playing field… without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, gender, age (40 or older), disability (physical or mental), gender identity, protected genetic information, or parental status.”
The brochure also advertises that the Secret Service has an ‘Affirmative Action Plan’ and an ‘Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Program’.
Loucious Hires III, executive director of the United States Secret Service‘s Office of Equity, has declared DEI to be “mission imperative” for the agency.
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