In the year that has passed since the assassination attempt of President Donald Trump in Butler, Pa., efforts to increase female presence in law enforcement have waned.
The fallout from the Secret Service’s handling of the assassination attempt has led Republican lawmakers to question the nationwide effort to increase the female recruitment rate to 30% by 2030.
By 2022, the “30×30 pledge” had the signatures of 150 law enforcement agencies. Signees included the Secret Service, FBI and U.S. Marshalls.
Since taking office in January, Trump has signed several executive orders repealing DEI initiatives and has subsequently revoked funding from institutions who have not complied with these orders. This led some law enforcement agencies, like the Des Moines Police Department, to abandon their 30×30 pledges.
At the center of the Secret Service’s malfeasance in Butler, Pa. last summer was the agency’s former director, Kimberly Cheatle, the second woman to hold the agency’s top position.
Cheatle was called to testify in front of the House Oversight Committee one week after the assassination attempt last year. She was grilled with questions about how an armed man was able to scale a roof about 130 yards from a former president, and after calls to resign came from both sides of the aisle, Cheatle resigned.
Republicans took the opportunity to link the events of July 13, 2024, to the Secret Service’s recent DEI initiatives. U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., called Cheatle a “DEI horror story.” Others, like U.S. Rep. Glenn Grothman, R-Wis., questioned Cheatle about her support of the 30×30 pledge and asked if standards for new agents had relaxed as a result.
Others questioned the height of female Secret Service agents who were part of the detail and were not tall enough to shield the 6-foot-3 Trump from a bullet.
After returning to the Oval Office for a second time, Trump appointed Sean Curran, one of the Secret Service agents on stage with him on July 13, to Cheatle’s job.
The Secret Service announced this week that it has implemented broad reforms to “ensure clear lines of accountability and improved information sharing” as a response to last year’s assassination attempt. The agency also announced Wednesday that six agents were issued suspensions related to the events in Butler last year.
