Insider reveals how Secret Service ‘really screwed up’ BEFORE Trump assassination bid and role women DEI hires played to put lives at risk

A former agent is drawing a connection between the U.S. Secret Service’s (USSS) approach to diversity and the security blunders at Donald Trump’s Pennsylvania rally, where the former president was shot and killed.

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 for field positions may have played a role.

Gray’s comments come amid allegations circulating on social media that Trump’s female guardians are too small to protect the 6-foot-3 candidate, and that one female officer struggled to stow her firearm.

The chaotic scenes at the meeting cast doubt on Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle’s controversial plan to “diversify” the agency and make the male-dominated police force 30 percent female by 2030.

“The Secret Service really screwed up the planning for this outdoor event,” Gray told DailyMail.com.

“It’s possible that there’s a tough woman who’s doing her job, just as there are men who may not be able to do their job. It’s just that during this particular event, there were questionable actions on the part of some officers, including some female officers, that raise your eyebrows.”

Trump, 78, was holding a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania — a key state in the Nov. 5 election — when shots rang out, hitting his right ear and leaving his face covered in blood.

One person in the crowd was killed and two others were wounded before USSS agents fatally shot the suspect, a 20-year-old man wielding an AR-15-style rifle. The suspect got close enough to fire at Trump from a nearby rooftop.

Gray said the attack revealed a frightening lack of planning, given that the roof should have been guarded. He described a series of blunders by the security team that cast doubt on their suitability for the life-or-death job.

He spoke of a female officer who was about 5 feet 6 inches tall and who rightfully “used her body to shield Trump” from further gunfire, but who was simply too small 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 pointed to widely shared footage of a female officer attempting to holster her weapon after Trump was pushed into a black vehicle.

“It was definitely something I frowned upon,” said Gray, now an academic at the University of New Haven.

“I’m a former weapons instructor … and that shows to me that that person did not have the skills to be operating there at the time.”

It also took far too long for the Secret Service team, made up of male and female agents, to get Trump off the stage and away from a possible second shooter, he said.

This, he added, was partly because the Republican himself wanted to retrieve his shoes, which had fallen off, and appear defiant as the crowd began chanting, “USA, USA.”

The attempted shooting of the former president has prompted a flurry of claims, some of them outlandish. These claims reflect the terrifying uncertainties surrounding the attack and the heated, polarized political climate in America.

The US Congress has ordered an investigation into “inexcusable security breaches” at Trump’s campaign rally and the role played by the USSS, which is responsible for protecting sitting and former presidents and presidential candidates.

Some Republicans attributed the failures to the agency’s embrace of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies and Cheatle’s commitment to hiring 30 percent women by 2030, leading to calls for her resignation.

Republican Congressman Tim Burchett called Cheatle a “diversity” asset and blamed the female recruitment campaign for the security failures surrounding the Trump assassination attempt. Critics say women are less effective officers than men.

Hours after the attempted assassination, Cheatle was called by the Republican-led House of Representatives Oversight Committee to testify at a hearing scheduled for July 22.

Cheatle, who was appointed by US President Joe Biden in 2022, said Monday the agency will “fully participate” in the independent investigation into 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 feasibility of having female Secret Service agents.

“These men and women are putting their lives on the line,” she told reporters on Monday.

“We cannot rule that out, whether it is a man or a woman.”

The agency denied allegations from some Trump supporters that it had denied a campaign request for more security, saying it had recently “added protective resources and capabilities to the former president’s security detail.”

The rallygoer who died Saturday was identified by authorities 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 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 a suspect and said the shooting was being investigated as an attempted murder.

FBI officials said Sunday that the shooter acted alone. The agency said it had not yet identified any ideology associated with the suspect or found any evidence of mental health issues or threatening language on the suspect’s social media accounts.

Crooks was a registered 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 nutritional aide at a nursing home.

The weapon, an AR-style 5.56 caliber rifle, was purchased legally, FBI officials said, adding that they believed it was purchased by the suspect’s father.