It's unclear whether either woman was injured or whether they will be disciplined over the altercation. The fight did not wake anyone in the Obama residence or the surrounding neighborhood, the sources said.
The incident is raising new concerns among fellow Secret Service agents and officers about the agency's lowering of hiring standards during years of a major DEI push to add more minorities and women to the ranks under previous Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle.
Cheatle resigned under a cloud after the J13 assassination attempt against Donald Trump. The Secret Service for years has experienced low morale and a severe manpower shortage, which is also contributing to lower hiring standards as the agency works to increase its agents and officers.
Special Agent Rashid Ellis earlier this year publicly stated that he believed that the Secret Service's DEI policies and agendas are directly responsible for the Secret Service failures at Butler that led to the near assassination of Trump. He also said the agency unfairly disqualified him from a promotion and believes "quotas played a factor in that." I reported on his public comments in February.
Just days after President Trump's inauguration, his administration terminated all DEI mandates, policies, and programs across the federal government and ordered federal workers in DEI initiatives to be placed on leave. This directive applied to the Secret Service, and numerous DEI officials were removed from their positions. An internal rainbow-colored Secret Service website serving DEI initiatives also was shut down.
Numerous sources in the Secret Service community have questioned whether Sean Curran, who Trump tapped to lead the agency, is doing anything to roll back the agency's DEI initiatives. For instance, they wonder if he has rescinded Cheatle's previous commitment to a national 30x30 pledge that has a goal of hiring 30% women in law enforcement by 2030.
Many sources are quick to say that they know several women agents and officers who are exceptional at their jobs, but stress there are others who lack the skills, physical strength, and professionalism that serving in the Secret Service requires yet remain on the job and are sometimes promoted over more qualified men. The sources acknowledge that there also are unprofessional men who fail to meet prior Secret Service training and professionalism standards. But these sources say Cheatle's push to hire more women at the agency in recent years has led to quite a few women lacking the necessary protective skills the jobs require.
After the assassination attempt, memes showing an overweight agent struggling to holster her gun while trying to evacuate Trump circulated widely over the Internet. That agent was serving as the "lead agent" in charge of security for Trump's entire visit to Butler (his arrival at the airport, his remarks on stage and departure), although another female agent was in charge of site security and was responsible for failing to ensure that local law enforcement officers were stationed on the roof of the AGR building where Crooks opened fire on Trump and the crowd.
As RealClearPolitics reported last year, before the assassination attempt. A female Secret Service agent experiencing a mental breakdown at Joint Base Andrews physically attacked her supervisor while armed and had to be wrestled to the ground, cuffed, and removed from the terminal.
