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 has linked diversity-hiring at the US Secret Service (USSS) to the security failures at Donald Trump's rally in Pennsylvania, where the former president was shot at and grazed in an assassination attempt.

Kenneth Gray, an ex-FBI special agent with experience in counterterrorism and crisis management, said the USSS 'really screwed up' on Saturday and that efforts to hire more women in field roles may well have played a role.

Gray's comments come as allegations swirl on social media that Trump's women guardians were too short to protect the 6ft 3in candidate, and that a female agent could be seen struggling to holster her firearm.

The chaotic scenes at the rally cast doubt on Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle's controversial bid to 'diversify' the agency and make the male-dominated force absorb 30 percent female recruits by 2030.

'The Secret Service really screwed up in their planning for this outdoor event,' Gray told DailyMail.com.

Critics say the women Secret Service agents were not tall enough to shield Trump from any further bullets

'It's possible to have a tough female out there who doing her job, just like you have males out there who may not be capable of doing their jobs. It's just that, during this particular event, there were questionable actions on the part of some agents, including some females agents, that raises one's eyebrows.'

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

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

Former special agent Kenneth Gray served in the FBI for 24 years 

Gray says the attack revealed a scary lack of planning, as the rooftop 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 roughly 5ft 5in female agent correctly 'using her body to protect' Trump from any further gunfire — but was just too short to be able to stop bullets hitting someone as tall as the former president.

'It looked more like that he was protecting her than she was protecting him,' said Gray.

He also referred to widely-shared footage of a female agent as she struggled to holster her weapon after Trump had been bundled into a black vehicle.

'It certainly was something that raised my eyebrows,' said Gray, now an academic at the University of New Haven.

'I am a former firearms instructor … and that shows to me that person lacked the skills to be out there at that time.'

The Secret Service team, which included male and female agents, also took far too long to get Trump off the stage and away from any potential second shooter, he said.

This, he added, was in part due to the Republican himself, who wanted to get his shoes, which had fallen off, and to pose defiantly as the crowd erupted into chants of 'USA, USA.'

The attempted shooting of the former president has spawned a vast sea of claims — some outlandish — reflecting the frightening uncertainties surrounding the attack, as well as America's fevered, polarized political climate.

The US Congress has ordered a probe into 'inexcusable security breaches' at Trump's campaign stop, and the role played by USSS, which is responsible for protecting serving and former presidents and presidential candidates.

Trump's supporters shared video online of a female Secret Service agent who appeared unable to holster her weapon 

The female agent was used in an internet meme about how diversity-hiring had weakened the Secret Service 

Other online pundits suggested that female agents were more interested in saving themselves than protecting the former president 

US Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle is battling calls for her resignation over security failures at the rally and diversity-hiring efforts

Trump has since thankde the Secret Service for rushing in to help him during the attack   

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

Republican congressman Tim Burchett dubbed Cheatle a 'diversity' hire and blamed the female recruitment drive for security failings around the attempted hit on Trump. Critics say females make less effective agents than men.

Hours after the assassination attempt, the Oversight Committee in the Republican-led US House of Representatives summoned Cheatle to testify at a hearing scheduled for July 22.

Cheatle, who was appointed by US President Joe Biden in 2022, on Monday said the agency will 'participate fully' in the independent review 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 viability of women Secret Service agents.

'These men and women put their lives on the lives,' she told reporters Monday. 

'We should not discount that, if it's a man or if it's a woman.'

The agency denied accusations by some Trump supporters that it had rejected a campaign request for more security, saying that it recently 'added protective resources and capabilities to the former President's security detail.'

The rally attendee killed on Saturday was identified by authorities as Corey Comperatore, 50, of Sarver, Pennsylvania. He died trying to protect his family from the hail of bullets, said Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro.

Two people wounded in the shooting were in a stable condition on 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 the suspect and said the shooting was being investigated as an attempted assassination.

FBI officials said on Sunday that the shooter acted alone. The agency said it had yet to identify an ideology linked to the suspect or any indications of mental health issues or found any 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 employed as a dietary aide at a nursing home.

The gun — an AR-style-5.56 caliber rifle — had been legally bought, FBI officials said, adding they believed it had been purchased by the suspect's father.