Former President Donald Trump praised a female Secret Service agent at a rally in St. Cloud, Minnesota, on Saturday who shielded him with her body during the assassination attempt that nearly killed him at a rally earlier this month.
The Secret Service has faced intense criticism since the event for leaving Trump exposed to gunfire from a nearby rooftop, and also for using female agents who were smaller than Trump and who, critics said, struggled to respond.
The use of female agents has been ascribed to “diversity, equity, inclusion” (DEI) policies, which are a major target of criticism by the Trump campaign and the conservative movement. But Trump defended an agent who ran to his side.
FILE -Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump is surrounded by U.S. Secret Service agents after an assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Butler, Pa., Saturday, July 13, 2024. Months before the assassination attempt, some Pennsylvania lawmakers had proposed to outlaw the type of rifle used in the shooting. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
In an ad-libbed portion of his speech, he expressed his appreciation:
Every one of them — there wasn’t one that was slow. A woman who was on my right, she was shielding me. Beautiful person — she was shielding me, everything she could.. And she got criticized by the fake news because she wasn’t tall enough. Well, you know, she wasn’t tall enough. Because I’m tall, and she wasn’t tall enough. And she was criticized — she was so brave, she was shielding me with everything, she wanted to take a bullet, because the bullets were flying. And every one of those guys.
After weeks of refusing to resign, Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned on July 23 after a tough round of testimony about the event in Congress.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of “”The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days,” available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of “The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency,” now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.