A former agent has linked diversified hiring at the US Secret Service (USSS) to security lapses at Donald Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania, where the former president was shot and grazed in an assassination attempt.
Kenneth Gray, a former FBI special agent with experience in counterterrorism and crisis management, said the USSS “really made a mistake” on Saturday and that efforts to hire more women in field roles may well have played a role.
Gray’s comments come as accusations circulate on social media that Trump’s female bodyguards were too short to protect the 6-foot-3 candidate, with one officer seen struggling to holster her firearm.
The chaotic scenes at the demonstration cast doubt on a controversial proposal by Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to “diversify” the agency and have the male-dominated force absorb 30 percent female recruits by 2030.
“The Secret Service really made a mistake in planning this outdoor event,” Gray told DailyMail.com.
Critics say the female Secret Service agents were not tall enough to protect Trump from further bullets.
“There may be a strong woman doing her job, just as there are men who are not capable of doing their job. It’s just that, during this particular event, there were questionable actions by some officers, including some women, which makes one wonder.”
Trump, 78, was holding a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, a key state in the Nov. 5 election, when shots rang out, hitting him in the right ear and leaving his face covered in blood.
One person in the crowd was killed and two others were injured before USSS officers fatally shot the suspect, a 20-year-old man with an AR-15-style rifle who got close enough to shoot Trump from a nearby rooftop.
Former Special Agent Kenneth Gray served in the FBI for 24 years
Gray says the attack revealed a shocking lack of planning, as the roof should have been guarded. He described a series of errors by the security team that called into question their suitability for a life-or-death job.
He spoke of a female officer who was about 5’5″ and “used her body appropriately to protect” Trump from further gunfire, but was too short to be able to stop bullets hitting someone as tall as the former president.
“It seemed more like he was protecting her than she was protecting him,” Gray said.
He also referred to widely shared footage of a female officer struggling to holster her gun after Trump was shoved into a black vehicle.
“It was certainly something that surprised me,” said Gray, now a scholar at the University of New Haven.
“I am a former firearms instructor… and that shows me that that person lacked the necessary skills to be there at that time.”
The Secret Service team, which included both male and female agents, also took too long to get Trump off the stage and away from any potential second shooter, he said.
This, he added, was partly due to the Republican himself, who wanted to retrieve his shoes, which had fallen off, and pose defiantly as the crowd erupted in chants of “USA, USA.”
The attempted shooting of the former president has generated a vast sea of claims, some wild, that reflect the terrifying uncertainties surrounding the attack as well as the febrile and polarized political climate in the United States.
The US Congress has ordered an investigation into “inexcusable security breaches” at Trump’s campaign stop and the role played by the USSS, which is responsible for protecting sitting and former presidents and presidential candidates.
Trump supporters shared a video online of a female Secret Service agent appearing unable to holster her gun.
The female agent was used in an Internet meme about how diverse hiring had weakened the Secret Service.
Other online pundits suggested the female officers were more interested in saving themselves than protecting the former president.
U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle is fighting calls for her resignation over security lapses at the rally and diversity hiring efforts.
Trump has since thanked the Secret Service for rushing to his aid during the attack.
Some Republicans blamed the failures on the agency’s adoption of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies and Cheatle’s push to hire 30 percent women by 2030, prompting calls for her resignation.
Republican Rep. Tim Burchett called Cheatle a “diversity” hire and blamed the female recruiting campaign for security lapses surrounding the assassination attempt on Trump. Critics say women are less effective officers than men.
Hours after the assassination attempt, the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives Oversight Committee subpoenaed Cheatle to testify at a hearing scheduled for July 22.
Cheatle, who was appointed by US President Joe Biden in 2022, said on Monday that the agency would “fully participate” in the independent review of the incident.
The Secret Service has not yet commented on the involvement of female agents.
White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre called it “ridiculous” to question the viability of female Secret Service agents.
“These men and women are risking their lives,” he told reporters on Monday.
“We shouldn’t rule that out, whether it’s a man or a woman.”
The agency denied allegations by some Trump supporters that it had rejected a campaign request for extra security, saying it had recently “added resources and protective capabilities to the former president’s security team.”
Authorities have identified the protester who died Saturday as Corey Comperatore, 50, of Sarver, Pennsylvania. He died while trying to shield his family from the hail of bullets, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said.
Two people injured in the shooting were in stable condition Sunday. Pennsylvania State Police identified them as David Dutch, 57, of New Kensington, Pennsylvania, and James Copenhaver, 74, of Moon Township, Pennsylvania.
The FBI identified Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, as the suspect and said the shooting was being investigated as an attempted murder.
On Sunday, FBI officials said the shooter acted alone. The agency said it had not yet identified an ideology linked to the suspect or any indication of mental health issues or found threatening language on the suspect’s social media accounts.
Crooks was registered as a Republican, according to state voter records, and donated $15 to a Democratic political action committee when he was 17. At the time of the shooting, he was working as a dietary aide at a nursing home.
The weapon, a 5.56-caliber AR-style rifle, had been purchased legally, FBI officials said, adding that they believed it had been purchased by the suspect’s father.