President Joe Biden’s Secret Service chief, Kimberly Cheatle, is set to face a House hearing after failing to prevent a sniper attack on former President Donald Trump. Cheatle, who was previously praised by Biden for her exceptional leadership, is now under fire for potentially prioritizing diversity over merit in her hiring practices. Critics argue this focus may have compromised the agency’s effectiveness. With a career spanning 27 years at the Secret Service and a brief stint at PepsiCo, Cheatle’s return to the agency has become controversial. The upcoming hearing promises to reveal more about her decisions and their impact on national security.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said on Fox News radio today that Kimberly Cheatle “has a lot to answer for.”

Before retiring from the Secret Service in 2019, Cheatle worked for President Donald Trump for 27 years reports Breitbart.

She then spent 14 months working at PepsiCo North America as the head of security. In August 2022, Biden rehired her to oversee the agency. In a statement from the White House, Biden said:

Jill and I know firsthand Kim’s commitment to her job … When Kim served on my security detail when I was Vice President, we came to trust her judgement and counsel. She is a distinguished law enforcement professional with exceptional leadership skills, and was easily the best choice to lead the agency at a critical moment for the Secret Service. She has my complete trust, and I look forward to working with her.

“Cheatle served as the Special Agent in Charge of the Atlanta Field Office, providing oversight for all mission-related investigations, protective intelligence, and protective visits in the state of Georgia,” the statement describing her career said. “Prior to serving as Assistant Director [of protective operations].”

According to her LinkedIn profile, she graduated from Eastern Illinois University with a degree in sociology in 1992.

The Department of Homeland Security is home to the Secret Service. Alejandro Mayorkas, Biden’s disgraced progressive border chief who supports immigration, is her immediate boss.

Following the assassination attempt, Mayorkas tweeted at 8:43 p.m. that the security of the presidential contenders “is one of our… most vital” objectives.

Cheatle is currently under fire for putting the progressive objective of diversity ahead of the conventional objective of quality. For instance, the objective supported the hiring and advancement of women over males who were more qualified to carry out the agency’s duties.

DEI policy opponent Chris Rufo wrote in the City Journal:

This is official policy. The Secret Service openly boasts that it “prioritizes recruiting women candidates” and has formulated an “affirmative action” plan to increase the number of women, LGBT, Native Americans, and other identity groups.

Cheatle herself told CBS News that her goal was to reach 30 percent female recruits by 2030: “I’m very conscious, as I sit in this chair now, of making sure that we need to attract diverse candidates and ensure that we are developing and giving opportunities to everybody in our workforce, and particularly women.” The agency is well on its way. In 2021, for the first time, the special agent training class graduated more women than men.

However, Rufo noted that “the best candidates—the strongest and fastest, the best marksmen—will be men.”

It’s a reality that the Secret Service is determined to circumvent. The agency itself has published its fitness standards in two parts: one for men, and a separate, less rigorous one for women. These biological facts should be obvious. Every nightclub owner knows that physicality matters. A bouncer who is six-foot-five, 200 pounds, will provide better security than a smaller woman.

When ABC News questioned Cheatle about threats in early July, she said, “There’s nothing specific and nothing credible out there right now.”

Explore exclusive GGI coverage of Donald Trump’s assassination attempt.