The American ultra-conservative right criticized the Secret Service women responsible for protecting the former president, following the assassination attempt against Donald Trump, on Saturday.
"Too small", "too weak" were some of the sexist comments directed at the Secret Service, among others that questioned how a shooter could have gotten so close to the former US president, while also calling into question the recruitment policy of "diversity, equality and inclusivity" [DEI, in English].
Several women, wearing suits and sunglasses typical of Secret Service agents, ran to protect and remove the Republican candidate from the scene, the target of gunfire at a rally, on Saturday, in the state of Pennsylvania.
"Women shouldn't be in the Secret Service. These agents should be the best and none of the best [in the profession] is a woman", ultra-conservative commentator Matt Walsh wrote on the social network X (formerly Twitter).
"I can't imagine that a DEI recruit from Pepsi wouldn't be a good choice to head the Secret Service," added ironically, on the same network, Republican Tim Burchett, member of the House of Representatives (lower house of the Senate).
Burchett was referring to Kimberly Cheatle, the second woman to head this federal agency and previously responsible for security at the company PepsiCo for several years, before returning to the Secret Service, where she had worked for about three decades.
The Secret Service, which opened its doors to women in 1971, aims to have 30% female agents by 2030, the CBS News television network reported last year.
“I want to ensure that we attract diverse applications and that we develop and provide opportunities for all of our employees, especially women,” Cheatle had said at the time.
The ultraconservative right did not hesitate to use this statement to denounce the type of recruitment. Contacted by the France-Presse news agency, the Secret Services did not react.
Human resources has attempted to accelerate the diversification of recruiting practices in the United States in the wake of the 2020 homicide of African-American George Floyd and the subsequent anti-racist movement.
But in recent months, conservatives have stepped up their counterattack, saying these practices harm white men.
J.D. Vance, the Ohio senator chosen as Donald Trump's vice presidential candidate, introduced a bill last month to suppress DEI programs in the federal government.
"DEI is pure and simple racism. It's time to ban it at the national level, starting with the federal government", he wrote, at the time, in X.
Despite having stated that he felt safe with the Secret Service agents, Biden acknowledged that the question remains "open" regarding the agents' anticipation of Trump's assassination attempt.
When Donald Trump appeared in public at the Republican convention in Milwaukee on Monday, he was surrounded by male agents. "This is how you protect a president," conservative commentator Rogan O'Handley wrote on X.
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