The women of the Secret Service, DEI and Trump

Your definitive guide to women, politics and power.

Jul 19, 2024 View in browser   By Emma Cordover Illustration by Claudine Hellmuth/POLITICO (source images via iStock; AP; Getty) Welcome back, Rulers! It’s been a jarring week, to say the least. I fortunately had a jubilant weekend celebrating my (our) birthday with my twin, but I’m happy to be back with you to take a look at the fallout from this weekend’s events and what it could mean for women.  Let’s get into it.  Right after a shooter attempted to kill former President Donald Trump at a weekend campaign rally, the finger pointing commenced with a vengeance. Some Republicans blamed President Joe Biden for the shooting because of his campaign rhetoric. Some on the left insisted the whole thing was staged. Both Democrats and Republicans warned the divisions in this country mean more political violence is all but inevitable — and blamed each other for it. Others on the far right pointed the finger squarely at DEI — Diversity, Equity and Inclusion — and the female Secret Service agents tasked with protecting the former president. “DEI got someone killed,” the far-right account Libs of TikTok said on X. “DEI Secret Service make Presidents LESS Safe,” influencer Benny Johnson wrote on X. “There should not be any women in the Secret Service,” far-right commentator Matt Walsh wrote on X. Women have been protecting presidents since Abraham Lincoln was in office. But the sight of women Secret Service agents rushing a wounded Trump off stage was apparently shocking to many. On Sunday, Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) told Fox News that Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, one of two women to serve in her position, was a “DEI initiative person” and “this is what happens when you don’t put the best players in.” On Wednesday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell insisted that Cheatle should step down. Critics on the left say members of the MAGA movement are using Trump’s assassination attempt as an excuse to reinforce women’s limited role within the Republican party, while Trump allies dismiss those concerns, pointing to GOP women in leadership positions as evidence of gender equity. DEI initiatives, they argue, are wholly unnecessary. “To me it’s not about DEI, it’s about common sense,” Dana Perino, Fox news anchor and former White House press secretary under the George W. Bush administration, says in an interview with Women Rule. “We have so many different problems in America, that percentages are not one we should worry about right now. People can waste a lot of time with angst over the end of DEI.” The attacks on DEI in the wake of the shooting, Cheatle’s outcome and the ensuing conversation about women entering previously male-dominated spaces may signal the beginning of the Republican party’s plans to reject DEI as a whole, argues Nina Burleigh, journalist and author of “The Trump Women: Part of the Deal.” As she writes in her newsletter, American Freakshow, “‘DEI’ has been a MAGA rallying cry for the last few years, code, like ‘woke,’ for resentment over nonwhites and women in positions of power.” Kristen Drybread, professor of anthropology at the University of Colorado Boulder and author of “Corruption and Illiberal Politics in the Trump Era,” tells Women Rule the recent anti-DEI rhetoric is “an excuse to tell the people who are entering spaces that were traditionally coded masculine and upending that order to, ‘Get back, get down in your positions.’” Some worry this anti-DEI rhetoric is the Republican Party’s attempt to stifle women’s progress. “The centerpiece of the MAGA movement is a backlash towards women,” Burleigh says in an interview with Women Rule. “When Trump was a young man, in the 60s, women’s careers were limited to nurse, teacher or secretary. It was Mad Men — that is what he is.” Perino fervently disagrees with that assessment. “This idea that Republicans are not pro-women is insane to me,” Perino says, “why undermine people by saying ‘I want to hire a woman.’ You’ve already undermined her.” Yes, Perino says, having people from different walks of life on a team is an advantage. “When you have a lot of different viewpoints, when you have different talents and backgrounds, that makes for a good team,” she says. But she declined to tether “background” to race or gender, adding, “that might mean the team is all Black, that might mean the team is all white.” Law enforcement groups are defending the women in their workforce. “Statements blaming this shooting on efforts to promote gender equity are disingenuous at best and deeply dangerous at worst,” the 30x30 Initiative and Women in Federal Law Enforcement, along with other law enforcement groups, write in a letter in response to the backlash. “It is an insult to the women of our agency to imply that they are unqualified based on gender,” Anthony Guglielmi, the Secret Service communications chief, told NBC News. Those “who are intent on preserving a patriarchal status quo, any excuse that they can find to reinforce the rightness of that, they’ll take,” Drybread says. Cheatle on Wednesday privately acknowledged in congressional briefings that the agency had made mistakes, but Congressional leadership is still calling for her resignation. House Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) announced on Monday that his panel will hold a hearing with Cheatle on July 22. POLITICO reports this week that Trump and some close to him opted not to join in on the criticism of the women Secret Service agents. POLITICO Special Report Jae C. Hong/AP The subtle message hidden in Nikki Haley’s ‘strong endorsement’ of Trump by Lisa Kashinsky, Natalie Allison and Meridith McGraw for POLITICO: “Haley’s full-throated support of Trump on Republicans’ biggest stage accelerated what had been a slow detente between the former rivals for the GOP nomination since the former South Carolina governor exited the race in March. … But Haley — who warned Trump when she suspended her campaign that he would have to work to win over her voters — also signaled that she did not fully believe his MAGA base was up to that task.” Sarah Huckabee Sanders: The country is ‘ready’ for a woman to be president by Liz Crampton for POLITICO: “‘I certainly hope that the first female president is a Republican and I think there is a long list of people that are capable and could certainly take that on,’ Sanders said in conversation with POLITICO at the convention. Sanders, who served as former President Donald Trump’s press secretary, is widely speculated to be among the GOP contenders for the presidency in 2028. ‘I do think there is a great desire for a female to serve in that role,’ she continued.” Florida abortion rights brawl transforms normally boring budget committee into a battleground by Arek Sarkissian for POLITICO: “The rewritten statement the Floridians Protecting Freedom committee received this week was instead loaded with talking points that made it sound like an anti-abortion advertisement, Laura Goodhue, executive director of the Florida Alliance of Planned Parenthood Affiliates, wrote in a statement.” Number of the Week Read the 2022 annual report here. MUST READS Paul Sancya/AP JD Vance Wants to Take Women Back to the 1950s by Laura Bassett for New York Magazine: “The underlying message from Vance — that women have a binary choice between career and motherhood and that the latter is the only right one to make — is as old as the steam engine. But as an Ivy League–educated man in his 30s, and someone who understands social media in a way the old, wooden running mate that came before him never could, Vance can put an ominous new polish on outdated views of marriage roles and women in the workplace.” Lara Trump, Woman in Black at the Republican National Convention by Vanessa Friedman for The New York Times: “After all, black is an easy color to read. It means mourning. It means serious. It set a tone at a time when the question of “tone” is under close scrutiny. Black wasn’t the predictable choice. It wasn’t what Ms. Trump had worn for her speech at the last Republican National Convention back in 2020. (Then she had chosen a particularly bright shade of carnelian.) But it was the telling choice.” Mammograms have pros and cons. Women can handle the nuance, study argues by Ronnie Cohen for NPR: “Most women have absorbed the widely broadcast message that screening mammography saves lives by the time they enter middle age. But many remain unaware of the costs of routine screening in their 40s — in false-positive results, unnecessary biopsies, anxiety and debilitating treatment for tumors that left alone would do no harm.” QUOTE OF THE WEEK Read more here. on the move Carrie Esko is joining SIA as director of global policy for trade and supply chain matters. She most recently was director for ICT services and digital trade at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. (h/t POLITICO Playbook) Tina Stow is joining America's Health Insurance Plans as executive vice president of public affairs. She was previously head of communications for Optum Health and is an alum of UnitedHealth Group and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America. (h/t POLITICO Influence) Maryam Cope is joining Natcast as vice president of governmental affairs. Cope is an alum of ASML. (h/t POLITICO Influence)   Follow us on Twitter Dana Nickel @delizanickel Giselle Ruhiyyih Ewing @giselleruhiyyih Katherine Long @katherinealong Emma Cordover @Emma_Cordover   Follow us

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